Kay Bailey Hutchison: “the time has come for us to put some common sense in our court system. There is no question that we must make sure that…”

“the time has come for us to put some common sense in our court system. There is no question that we must make sure that every person has a right to go to court if that person has been injured. But we see courts being overcrowded, we see defendants having to settle because it is less expensive to settle than to go ahead and try a case. We have seen research, particularly in the area of women's health, being shut off because the drug companies and the pharmaceuticals just cannot do it. They cannot do it because of the liabilities they are afraid they will incur. This is the eighth consecutive Congress in which the Senate or the Commerce Committee has considered product liability. During that time, the need for product liability reform has grown by leaps and bounds. A study by the Texas Public Policy Foundation found that from the early 1980's to the early 1990's, the total number of punitive damage awards in Dallas County was 14 times greater and the average award, adjusted for inflation, was 19 times higher. In Harris County, which is Houston, total awards were up 26-fold and the average award was up eightfold, and that is from a House Judiciary Committee report. My State of Texas and the State of California have begun to take steps to control this growth. But this is all over the country. These things are happening all over our country, and it is affecting the price of our products and the ability to do research.”