Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I will be brief in stating my opposition to this amendment. If the amendment is adopted, the basic reforms that we are seeking to achieve simply will not be achieved. Some cases simply should not be certified as class actions, either in the Federal or the State courts. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 is narrowly drawn so as to protect the rights of both plaintiffs and defendants to traditional due process as their rights are litigated. Under rule 23, cases that are overly broad because of conflicting laws that establish the rights of individual class members, or because of the factual differences in the circumstances of the plaintiffs, will not be certified as class actions. Only through denial of certification can the rights of the plaintiff class members be protected. When cases are denied class action status, all of the individual plaintiffs are then free to file their individual claims, no one is denied a right to recover damages, and another class action can be instituted in State court if it is reconfigured to be a state-centered class action. I want to stress that denial of class action status in Federal court when the case is removed does not mean an end to the litigation. It does not preclude recovery by the plaintiffs, either in individual actions or in a reconfigured class action proceeding.”