John Hope Bryant

the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Conyers] made a very important point a moment ago when he pointed out that last year when we passed the bill by an enormous margin, we had a stronger Justice Department provision in the bill than we do…

I say to my colleagues, had I been a party to this, I would stand up on the floor, and I would wave my arms and speak loudly as well. The fact of the matter is you voted for the bill that came out of committee, and the gentleman from…

this is one area in which we do not need to argue about what would happen if we did not adopt the Markey amendment and left the bill as it is, because there was a time only about 25 years ago when that was the situation in America. What…

I urge you to use some common sense here and ask yourself a question: If this bill only relates to burned timber and rotting timber, why was it necessary to suspend every single environmental law which applies to forest, to fish, and to…

Vote for the Schumer amendment, and vote against this outrage against the American people.

The European Community provides cradle to grave medical care for all of its citizens. We do not do that in the United States. So the statute of repose which says that after 15 years you cannot sue somebody for making a defective product…

last week a member of the gentleman's profession did some surgery down in Florida. I heard on the radio, he was supposed to cut off a person's foot. He amputated it, and when that person woke up, they had cut off the wrong foot. How much…

Mr. Sensenbrenner, as we all know, the purpose of punitive damages is to deter manufacturers of dangerous products from being willing to put the dangerous products on the market because they might hurt somebody. As we all know, because we…

the principal point of my amendment is to point out what all lawyers agree to; that is, you can allege with specificity as required under the rules the violations of the law and the wrongdoing, but you cannot allege the facts which prove…

Eighty percent of the courts have commercial suits, and the Rand study the gentleman quoted was talking about commercial suits and he knows it.

I want to reclaim my time. The gentleman has changed my words. This is a debating technique which is very clever, but it does not work. What I said was the draft of the gentleman's bill which was circulated last fall after you guys won the…

A few moments ago you all were quoting to us from a 1976 decision in Sundstrand saying this is the common law; we are just going to codify it. Last night we were told there would be no more amendments to the bill. In the last 5 or 10…

I would just like to appeal to the common sense of the gentleman from Texas. This amendment, which they all have handwritten at the last minute, says that deliberately from taking steps--for refraining from taking steps to discover whether…

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I do not think there is anything that more highlights the real purpose of this legislation more than the refusal of the gentleman from California [Mr. Cox] and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Fields] and…

Why did the gentleman just tell us his case was filed in State court when it was filed in Federal court? I mean the grounds of the gentleman's defense continue to shift from moment to moment around here. I say to the gentleman, The fact is…

one of the most, I think, difficult to understand portions of the bill before us today is the portion that has heretofore not been focused upon, regarding the requirements for pleading the case when a person might file if he has been…

The Rand study says 90 percent of these companies will be parties to litigation, but not tort litigation and not securities litigation. It is commercial litigation. Give the House the full benefit of the Rand study.

I am aware of it. It is an outrage. That is exactly why they are hiding behind it. They have no empirical data to back that bill up.

I would just call upon you and those similarly situated in your position to base those kinds of beliefs on empirical data and there is no empirical data to support the conclusions which you offered to the House in your remarks. That is the…

I just took note of the fact that the gentleman said a moment ago that for some kind of a loophole in the RICO statute that allows people to sue securities dealers who they believe are guilty of a pattern of fraudulent activity, but I am…

Mr. Chairman, I was inspired after hearing my friend, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran], for whom I have great respect, enormous respect. After I heard him speak, I want to say that he voices the sentiments by many of us on this side…

To recapitulate, the amendment says that the loser-pay bill on the floor today will only apply when the defendant is a small business, that is, one with 500 employees or less. A small business is defined in the amendment as the term…

You have got the same drag on the plaintiff as there is on the defendants, because the lawyer has to carry the burden. He is not going to do it unless he thinks he has a good chance of winning. That is the whole point of this. I would…

I would strongly oppose the gentleman's amendment now that I learn that it is in addition to rather than in place of, for the simple reason that as you have constructed it now, first the plaintiff who has no resources and is obviously…

I point out to the gentleman: that there is no risk attached? That is absolutely preposterous. Anyone who has ever been close to the courthouse knows that. A lawyer who starts the case and has to finance it, he is not going to prosecute a…