http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146995,00.html

 

Looks like this is a sure thing to make it to the president for signing.

 

 

Score!

Score!

 

For who?

 

Big Tobacco, Big Medicine, Big Corporate Anybody who now has little fear of actually being held accountable for their actions, since the federal courts are rather dismissive of class action suits. This is so anti-state's rights it should be scorned by any true republican who would give the thought of local governance more than lip service – except it's such a win for Big Unaccountable Corporate Anybody nobody is going to let their polital convictions get in teh way of that.

 

Don't get me wrong. I DON'T agree that the lawyers bringing these suits should have been able to shop for the most agrreable state to try cases in. But the present solution is, again, treating dandruff by decapitation. The more reasonable solution would have been to, by default, make the state bringing the most claimants in on a suit the state in which the class action is tried. Better still to m aybe have all the states try the cases separately, but that would slow the legal process to a near standstill.

Score for the small warehouse that once housed asbestos for a week and now finds itself on the hook for millions from class action suits because all the other companies are now broke from said suits. I'm not saying that people with health problems from asbestos shouldn't have theirr day in court, but the levels of 'culpability' that have been reached in cases like that are just crazy. This is just a pre-emptive strike for the fast food industry, which fears that somehwere a lunatic liberal judge will decide that the eeeevil fast food corporations forced people to eat all those Big Macs and Whoppers, and should be held responsible for the fact that they can no longer fit thru a standard size doorway. Now they will just have to go on a diet. Seriously, you have the right idea, there should be a middle ground here for reform, but with the Democrats fighting each and every attempt at change, Republicans just went for the throat (and seem to be winning, for the moment).

 

"Are there bad lawyers that bring meritless cases? Sure there are, and we should crack down on them," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a former trial lawyer. Yeah, right. Shoulda done something sooner. I like this part of the story:

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.

For who?

 

Big Tobacco, Big Medicine, Big Corporate Anybody who now has little fear of actually being held accountable for their actions, since the federal courts are rather dismissive of class action suits.  This is so anti-state's rights it should be scorned by any true republican who would give the thought of local governance more than lip service – except it's such a win for Big Unaccountable Corporate Anybody nobody is going to let their polital convictions get in teh way of that.

 

Don't get me wrong.  I DON'T agree that the lawyers bringing these suits should have been able to shop for the most agrreable state to try cases in.  But the present solution is, again, treating dandruff by decapitation.  The more reasonable solution would have been to, by default, make the state bringing the most claimants in on a suit the state in which the class action is tried.  Better still to m aybe have all the states try the cases separately, but that would slow the legal process to a near standstill.

 

 

Score for businesses who are being shaken down by greedy trial lawyers.

 

Score for businesses being intimidated and coereced into paying out settlements because they can't afford to defend themselves.