Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute to say to the gentleman from Tennessee that no judges have to find a frivolous lawsuit to be a frivolous lawsuit. They have that discretion in every case. But once they find it to be a frivolous lawsuit, it is injustice to not award attorneys' fees under rule 11 to those who have been wronged by being the victims of a frivolous lawsuit. What about the burden on the court? When the mandatory rule 11 sanction provision was in effect for almost 10 years between 1983 and 1993, the number of rule 11 court proceedings was easily manageable by the courts. The number of rule 11 court proceedings during that time amounted to 7.5 reported rule 11 cases per Federal district court per year, or one reported decision for each Federal district court judge per year, one per judge per year. That is not an unreasonable burden on our Federal judiciary to see justice done. Quite frankly, if that were done more often today, we would see a lot fewer frivolous lawsuits to begin with and, therefore, fewer requests for attorneys' fees. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith), the author of the legislation, the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the current chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.”