Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, hardworking Americans are some of the leading victims of frivolous lawsuits and the extraordinary costs that our legal system imposes. Every day, local businessowners routinely have lawsuits filed against them based on claims that have no substantive connection to them as a means of forum shopping on the part of the lawyers filing the case. These lawsuits present a tremendous burden on small businesses and their employees. The Innocent Party Protection Act, introduced by Judiciary Committee member Mr. Buck of Colorado, will help reduce the litigation abuse that regularly drags small businesses into court for no other reason than as part of a lawyer's forum shopping strategy. In order to avoid the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, plaintiffs' attorneys regularly join instate defendants to the lawsuits they file in State court even if the instate defendants' connections to the controversy are minimal or nonexistent. Typically the innocent but fraudulently joined instate defendant is a small business or the owner or employee of a small business. Even though these innocent instate defendants ultimately don't face any liability as a result of being named as a defendant, they, nevertheless, have to spend money to hire a lawyer and take valuable time away from running their businesses or spending time with their families to deal with matters related to a lawsuit to which they have no real connection.…”