Orrin Hatch

In the Florida settlement, the court threw out the contingency fee arrangement, which it found to be clearly excessive under the circumstances. This shows that the State courts are best equipped to address this issue by utilizing the…

I had to agree with him. I thought he was worth every penny he made, whether you agree or disagree. What about entertainers? Do we set an amount of money they can make?

When I tried cases for plaintiffs on contingency fees, I won most all of them. It was not a matter of not getting paid, because I was always able to win a bigger verdict than I could have gotten through settlement or they could have gotten…

If Michael Jordan wants to make $60 or $80 million a year, or Tiger Woods, who is earning millions of dollars a year, should Congress be setting their salary?

Let me ask one other question. I admire some of the top corporate leaders in the world as well as the top sports figures in the world.

Don't you think they deserve better than average compensation for that significant accomplishment?

I have been there, and I have to say, when we start setting salaries for attorneys, or any other group of people, that is going to be the end of the free market system, as far as I am concerned.

It is very unlikely that anybody is going to get away with some big windfall under the provisions that apply in this bill and, I might add, in the substitute that we have worked on as well.

In addition, the regulation of attorneys' fees properly, at least as I view it, belong in the domain of the States, and such usurpation of State prerogatives may very well violate the Tenth Amendment in the eyes of many constitutional…

Well, let me ask the distinguished Senator this: It seems to me we must also examine the precedent we are setting here in having the U.S. Congress single out any one profession by capping their earnings.

My point is, that is why contingent fees are so important. A lot of the people who came to me could in no way have spent a day in court without a contingency fee lawyer who was willing to take the risk of bringing their case before a jury…

Under any view of federalism, there is no justification for Congress, whatsoever, entering an area of pure State jurisdiction, altering the rights and the liabilities or remedies of private parties, and then dispensing with all due process…

If Congress, as it would be doing here, at least as I understand the intent of this amendment, were to interfere retroactively with private contracts, it would be unconstitutional for a variety of reasons; isn't that right?

Isn't it also true a contract between a plaintiff and his attorney is a legally enforceable contract, which Congress should not impair?

Recent court opinions, if my colleague would permit me to ask another question, such as New York v. United States or Printz v. United States has made the Tenth Amendment a shield against Federal impositions on the sovereign authority of…

nearly 2 years ago, President Clinton announced, from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the formation of the country's newest national monument, the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument in southern Utah. Because of the clandestine manner by…

the first freedom guaranteed in the Bill of Rights is the freedom to believe and to put those beliefs into practice as we think right, without government interference. This promise of freedom of worship is, for many, this country's…

year after year, millions of people flock to Washington D.C. to visit the seat of American government. They come from every state of the union and most of the nations of the Earth to view for themselves the workings of the oldest democracy…

we were all shocked and saddened by the tragic shooting incident at the Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon. I listened with sympathy this morning to my colleagues from Oregon, and share their sentiments. My heart goes out to the…

since the Civil War, more than 1.1 million American veterans have lost their lives in service to our Nation. I am humbled by their sacrifice. I am grateful for the price they have paid for our liberty, the terrible price of individual…

There are other provisions of the bill that are constitutionally infirm. The look-back penalties in the Commerce bill, which are imposed on the tobacco companies if teen smoking does not meet certain goals for reduction, are subject to…

I rise today to respond to a floor speech my good friend and colleague Senator Leahy recently delivered. In that address, Senator Leahy once again brought attention to the so-called vacancy crisis that is facing our Federal Judiciary. Now…

A critical component of our debate must be the issue of this bill's constitutionality. This is a matter of extreme seriousness. We are considering a bill that is fundamentally flawed with respect to its constitutionality. And that is…

Is the Senator aware that if a young teenager smokes, there is an 8 times propensity to graduate to marijuana, and if that teenager then graduates to marijuana, there is a greater propensity to graduate to harder drugs?

Now, of course, if you were tied down to particular numbers in a budget table or in a bill financing table and neither could justify these numbers so that precisely the preordained amount of revenue comes into the U.S. Treasury, you might…