Political Quotes

“a document being circulated by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America [ATLA] and their allied professional interest groups makes the accusation that the conference report on H.R. 956, the Commonsense Product Liability and Legal Reform Act of 1996, is radically different than the bill passed by the Senate. The contingency-fee lawyers' argument about commonsense product liability reform is unfounded. Anyone who reads the conference report and compares it to the Senate bill can see for themselves that, except for change in the time period, not the narrow scope, of the statute of repose and two slight modifications to the additional amount provision, the conference report is virtually identical to the Senate bill. All familiar with the history of this bill also know House Members delayed going to conference, and then agreeing on a conference report, for almost a year until it became apparent that Senate allies of the trial bar would not support legal fairness legislation going beyond the Senate bill. Facts are a stubborn thing for these lawyers, because as hard as they try to avoid them or argue around them or simply ignore them, as is often the case, the facts never change. And, the fact is that the product liability conference report is a narrow and limited proposal that almost mirrors the Senate's version of H.R. 956.”