Lamar Smith: “I want to thank Chairman Goodlatte for yielding me time and for also bringing the bill to the House floor today, and for…”

“I want to thank Chairman Goodlatte for yielding me time and for also bringing the bill to the House floor today, and for all of his hard work on this legislation. The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, known as LARA, is only 1-1/2 pages long, but it would prevent the filing of hundreds of thousands of pages of privileged lawsuits in Federal court. For example, in recent years, frivolous lawsuits have been filed against The Weather Channel for failing to accurately predict storms, against television shows people claimed were too scary, and against fast-food companies because inactive children gained weight. Frivolous lawsuits have become too common in our society. Lawyers who bring these cases have everything to gain and nothing to lose under current rules, which permit plaintiffs' lawyers to file frivolous suits, no matter how absurd the claims, with no penalty whatsoever. Meanwhile, defendants are faced with years of litigation and substantial attorneys' fees. These cases, and many like them, have wrongly cost innocent individuals and business owners their reputations and their hard-earned dollars. According to the research firm Towers Perrin, the annual direct cost of American tort litigation now exceeds $260 billion a year, or over $850 billion per person in America. Before 1993, it was mandatory for judges to impose sanctions, such as orders to pay for the other side's legal expenses, when lawyers filed frivolous lawsuits.…”