Shelley Moore Capito: “Thank you, I appreciate your opening statements. This may be a very civil debate because I couldn't agree with you more…”

“Thank you, I appreciate your opening statements. This may be a very civil debate because I couldn't agree with you more in that our civil justice system should be readily available, should be the place for the individual to seek redress when they have been wronged by either a corporation or corporate injustice or product failure. And I think that is the intent of our court system. However, what we are experiencing now in the United States is an overabundance, a glut of lawsuits that are clogging our courts, that are in some cases awarding outrageous jackpot types of awards, and because of that, because of that jackpot sort of mentality, many people with their legal assistance are clogging the courts so that those people who have suffered injustices and those people who are due awards are unable to get there. One of the issues that I think is extremely important is the cost to our economy. We talk all of the time on the floor about the importance of small businesses in the United States. I come from a small State, and I think small business comprises close to 90 percent of the businesses in our State. When you look at the burden of the current tort system on our small businesses, we are breaking the backs of our small business people.”