Class Action Bill Introduced
By Steven Brostoff
Washington
The battle to enact class action legal reform, a top industry legislative objective, began last week with the introduction of bipartisan legislation that would have major class action lawsuits heard in federal, rather than state, courts.
The legislation, called the Class Action Fairness Act of 2003, was introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Herb Kohl, D-Wisc.; and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill number was not available at press time.
Sen. Grassley said the legislation is necessary to help people understand their rights in class action lawsuits and protect them from unfair settlements.
"The class action system is full of problems," Sen. Grassley said. "We need to protect the rights of consumers and not allow attorneys to gain huge fees when their clients are left with little."
The legislation would allow class actions, which normally are heard in state courts, to be heard in federal courts if total damages exceed $2 million and the parties include citizens from multiple states. (Advocates of class action legal reform contend that some state courts are biased against defendants.)
In addition, the legislation calls for judicial scrutiny of settlements to assure fairness to plaintiffs, and "plain English" notification to plaintiffs of the fact the class action has been filed and of any proposed settlements.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, February 10, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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