Scott Fitzgerald: “I want to present a counterpoint, I guess, to the opinions of my distinguished colleague. I think he made a very…”

“I want to present a counterpoint, I guess, to the opinions of my distinguished colleague. I think he made a very eloquent case in favor of why we should have class action lawsuits in this country, and I would simply point out to my colleagues that this bill does not in any way diminish our ability to have worthwhile class action lawsuits. In fact, I think the intent of the bill that is passed out of the Judiciary Committee and which Senator Hatch spoke about earlier this afternoon is, in fact, to make the process for class action suits better, fairer, and more beneficial to the plaintiffs. One of the things the bill would do is create a consumer bill of rights to protect the class action plaintiffs, the actual clients of the class action lawyers. We have all heard about cases in which a class action lawsuit is filed, and in the end, the defendant corporation settles for millions of dollars paid to the lawyer and all the clients, or the plaintiffs get a coupon or something of insignificant value. So contrary to the impression created by Senator Durbin, I want to make it clear to my colleagues that this bill does not in any way seek to do away with class action lawsuits. In fact, we seek to make them better and more beneficial to the plaintiffs, the clients themselves, and cut down on some of the abuses.”