President Bush and conservatives have been pushing to limit the venues in which Class Action Lawsuits can be heard. In the past, cases have been heard in a handful of state courts that are sympathetic to the causes of the plaintiff's attorneys.
The legislation, given final congressional approval by the House on a 279-149 vote, would ban state courts from hearing large multistate class action lawsuits. Such courts have been known for issuing multimillion-dollar verdicts like they did against tobacco companies.
After the bill becomes law, cases against corporations and businesses accused of wrongdoing against large groups of people will be heard by federal judges. Critics have said these jurists are not as amenable as are their state counterparts to these cases, which often involve millions of dollars.
Class Action Lawsuits as they have been practiced in the last several years have degraded the burden of proof that any wrongdoing has been committed. Wasteful litigation drives up the prices of goods and services while usually winning the thousands of named litigants a few bucks. By contrast, the lawyers for the plaintiffs often make millions of dollars when they win or settle these cases.
The bill also would limit lawyers' fees in so-called coupon settlements - when plaintiffs get discounts on products instead of financial settlements - by linking the fees to the coupon's redemption rate or the actual hours spent working on a case.
The entire Associated Press article can be found here.
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