Political Quotes

“first let me thank Chairman Sensenbrenner for his leadership in bringing us to this historic point. He and I have been working on this for over 6 years. It has passed the House of Representatives three times before. Due to his good work, it has now passed the Senate and we have the opportunity to send it to the President. He is waiting to sign it and we shouldn't waste any more time. Now the truth about class action fairness and Vioxx. Critics have been arguing in the press that S. 5 should be rejected because it will hurt consumers bringing Vioxx cases against Merck. The truth is, however, that this legislation will have absolutely no effect on Vioxx suits, and here is why. The majority of personal injury cases brought against Merck are individual cases that would not be affected by the bill in any manner whatsoever. These include more than 400 personal injury cases that are part of a coordinated proceeding in New Jersey State Court. None of these cases will be affected by the bill because they are neither class actions nor mass actions. Merck has been named in more than 75 statewide and nationwide class actions involving Vioxx, but only a small percentage are personal injury class actions. To the extent these cases do involve personal injury, most were already brought in or removed to Federal Court because each potential class member's claims exceeds $75,000. Thus, these cases are removable to Federal Court under the old rules.”