[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 41 (Monday, March 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H2661-H2662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 988, ATTORNEY ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 
                                  1995

  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call 
up House Resolution 104 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 104

         Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this 
     resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 1(b) of rule 
     XXIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the 
     Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of 
     the bill (H.R. 988) to reform the Federal civil justice 
     system. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed 
     with. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall 
     not exceed two hours equally divided and controlled by the 
     chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on the 
     Judiciary. After general debate the bill shall be considered 
     for amendment under the five-minute rule for a period not to 
     exceed seven hours. It shall be in order to consider as an 
     original bill for the purpose of amendment under the five-
     minute rule the amendment in the nature of a substitute 
     recommended by the Committee on the Judiciary now printed in 
     the bill. The committee amendment in the nature of a 
     substitute shall be considered as read. During consideration 
     of the bill for amendment, the Chairman of the Committee of 
     the Whole may accord priority in recognition on the basis of 
     whether the Member offering an amendment has caused it to be 
     printed in the portion of the Congressional Record designated 
     for that purpose in clause 6 of rule XXIII. Amendments so 
     printed shall be considered as read. At the conclusion of 
     consideration of the bill for amendment the Committee shall 
     rise and report the bill to the House with such amendments as 
     may have been adopted. Any Member may demand a separate vote 
     in the House on any amendment adopted in the Committee of the 
     Whole to the bill or to the committee amendment in the nature 
     of a substitute. The previous question shall be considered as 
     ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage 
     without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with 
     or without instructions.

  The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss] is recognized for 
1 hour.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the 
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hall], pending 
which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for 
purposes of debate only.
  Mr. Speaker, as part of our ongoing commitment to fulfilling the 
Contract With America, today we consider the first of a series of 
commonsense legal reform measures. Americans are all too familiar with 
abuses and indefensible judgments spawned by our legal system. Almost 
every American can recall reading in a paper or seeing on TV some 
episode that boils their blood or elevates their blood-pressure about a 
system run amok--enough is enough.
  People across our Nation have called upon us to restore some basic 
fairness and reason to the judicial process now. I would guess that 
most Americans probably agree that the $3 million judgment recently 
awarded to a woman who spilled hot coffee in her lap was unreasonable. 
While the plaintiff in that case, and likely her lawyer too, now may 
rest comfortably on that judgment, the rest of America can expect to 
pay more for lukewarm coffee in the future. ``Beware of hot coffee'' 
signs are springing up at drive-in windows. Clearly, the system is out 
of balance and needs reform. And that is what we are doing here today. 
House Resolution 104 is an open, fair, and hopefully noncontroversial 
rule that allows us to consider H.R. 988. I am pleased that this 
resolution was reported out of the Rules Committee on a unanimous voice 
vote--with the full support of the minority.
  Specifically, House Resolution 104 provides 2 hours of general debate 
and a total of 7 hours for any germane amendments Members may wish to 
offer under an open amendment process. Majority and minority members of 
the Judiciary Committee who testified on this measure at our hearing on 
Friday suggested that 7 hours of amendments plus 2 hours of general 
debate should provide Members ample opportunity to discuss the bill.
  In fact, the timing in this rule was agreed upon in friendly 
negotiations with minority members of the Rules Committee. While the 
gentlelady from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] indicated 
[[Page H2662]] that some technical aspects of H.R. 988 may take time 
for nonattorneys to fully appreciate, she suggested
 that only 5 hours of amendment time would have been sufficient--we 
have offered 7. In fact, the minority members of the Rules Committee 
and the minority members of the Judiciary Committee indicated that they 
anticipate very few amendments from their side of the aisle.

  Mr. Speaker, in 1989, Americans filed more than 18 million civil 
lawsuits against each other. That is about 1 suit for every 10 adults 
in America. Meanwhile, the number of lawyers and the profits of the 
legal service industry have been exploding. In 1970, there were only 
355,000 attorneys in America. Today, that number has more than doubled, 
to nearly 1 million. I doubt anyone would claim our quality of life has 
doubled because of all those attorneys. Revenues to the legal industry 
have grown at a pace that exceeds that even of health care costs. I am 
delighted that the House is now beginning to address these disturbing 
trends by reconsidering some our system's current incentives. The 
Attorney Accountability Act of 1995 seeks to discourage frivolous 
lawsuits while encouraging good faith settlement negotiations by 
plaintiffs and defendants alike. The bill provides for a modified loser 
pays rule for certain civil suits brought in Federal court. By 
requiring that litigants who reject reasonable pretrial offers of 
settlement pay a portion of their opponents' legal costs, the Attorney 
Accountability Act should to more fruitful good faith negotiations. 
While making changes to our legal system that should make that system 
work better for all Americans, this bill also preserves America's 
unique contingency fee tradition--which is often crucial to ensuring 
access to the courts and our justice system by the poor.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this bill and this fair and open rule.
                              {time}  1430

  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  (Mr. HALL of Ohio asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks and include extraneous material.)
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker. I would like to commend my colleague 
from Florida, Mr. Goss, for ably describing this rule which will allow 
consideration of H.R. 988, the Attorney Accountability Act. This is a 
rule which caps the overall time allowed for the amendment process at 7 
hours. Normally, I am opposed to time caps on complex legislation such 
as this; however, the Rules Committee did reach a bipartisan agreement 
on an amendment offered by my colleague, Mr. Frost, during the 
committee's deliberations. Under the Frost amendment, as amended by Mr. 
Solomon, 2 hours of general debate is provided, and the time cap on 
amendments is increased from the original 6-hour limit to 7 hours. The 
rule also makes in order the Judiciary Committee amendment in the 
nature of a substitute as an original bill for the purposes of 
amendment.
  Mr. Speaker, even though this rule was reported out of the Committee 
on Rules by a voice vote, I want to point out that the bill itself, 
H.R. 988, did elicit substantial discussion among members of the Rules 
Committee. This bill makes major changes to the current Federal civil 
justice system and should be thoroughly debated. While many of us would 
have preferred a totally open rule, I am glad members of the committee 
increased the general debate time, as well as time for amendments, on a 
bill of this significance.
  Mr. Speaker, I am troubled by some of the provisions of the Attorney 
Accountability Act. I do believe we have a problem in our country with 
frivolous lawsuits. We all have heard or read about cases which seem 
absurd, and result in increased costs to consumers and small 
businesses. However, before supporting this bill, I want to make sure 
we are actually getting at the reform intended.
  The bill includes provisions which result in a loser pay system. 
Under these provisions, the nonprevailing party must pay the prevailing 
party's attorney's fees in Federal civil diversity litigation where a 
settlement offer has been made. While this could be a step toward 
reducing frivolous cases, I would like to see some assurances that this 
is not a tactic to scare away legitimate cases from middle-income 
people.
  There was concern expressed in the Rules Committee that, under these 
provisions, defendants could make intentionally low settlement offers 
and inflate costs as a strategy. In trying to reform the judicial 
system, we should be sensitive to the fact that not all Americans, and 
small businesses, can afford high-priced attorneys--and many of them do 
have legitimate claims which have a right to be heard.
  This rule does provide adequate time to explore this complicated and 
important subject, and therefore I will support the rule. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in supporting it.
  Mr. Speaker, I include the following for the Record:

                                      FLOOR PROCEDURE IN THE 104TH CONGRESS                                     
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                       Process used for floor      Amendments in
        Bill No.                  Title              Resolution             consideration              order    
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
H.R. 1.................  Compliance.............  H. Res. 6         Closed......................           None.
H. Res. 6..............  Opening Day Rules        H. Res. 5         Closed; contained a closed             None.
                          Package.                                   rule on H.R. 1 within the                  
                                                                     closed rule.                               
H.R. 5.................  Unfunded Mandates......  H. Res. 38        Restrictive; Motion adopted             N/A.
                                                                     over Democratic objection                  
                                                                     in the Committee of the                    
                                                                     Whole to limit debate on                   
                                                                     section 4; Pre-printing                    
                                                                     gets preference.                           
H.J. Res. 2............  Balanced Budget........  H. Res. 44        Restrictive; only certain            2R; 4D.
                                                                     substitutes.                               
H. Res. 43.............  Committee Hearings       H. Res. 43 (OJ)   Restrictive; considered in              N/A.
                          Scheduling.                                House no amendments.                       
H.R. 2.................  Line Item Veto.........  H. Res. 55        Open; Pre-printing gets                 N/A.
                                                                     preference.                                
H.R. 665...............  Victim Restitution Act   H. Res. 61        Open; Pre-printing gets                 N/A.
                          of 1995.                                   preference.                                
H.R. 666...............  Exclusionary Rule        H. Res. 60        Open; Pre-printing gets                 N/A.
                          Reform Act of 1995.                        preference.                                
H.R. 667...............  Violent Criminal         H. Res. 63        Restrictive; 10 hr. Time Cap            N/A.
                          Incarceration Act of                       on amendments.                             
                          1995.                                                                                 
H.R. 668...............  The Criminal Alien       H. Res. 69        Open; Pre-printing gets                 N/A.
                          Deportation                                preference; Contains self-                 
                          Improvement Act.                           executing provision.                       
H.R. 728...............  Local Government Law     H. Res. 79        Restrictive; 10 hr. Time Cap            N/A.
                          Enforcement Block                          on amendments; Pre-printing                
                          Grants.                                    gets preference.                           
H.R. 7.................  National Security        H. Res. 83        Restrictive; 10 hr. Time Cap            N/A.
                          Revitalization Act.                        on amendments; Pre-printing                
                                                                     gets preference.                           
H.R. 729...............  Death Penalty/Habeas...  N/A               Restrictive; brought up                 N/A.
                                                                     under UC with a 6 hr. time                 
                                                                     cap on amendments.                         
S. 2...................  Senate Compliance......  N/A               Closed; Put on suspension              None.
                                                                     calendar over Democratic                   
                                                                     objection.                                 
H.R. 831...............  To Permanently Extend    H. Res. 88        Restrictive; makes in order              1D.
                          the Health Insurance                       only the Gibbons amendment;                
                          Deduction for the Self-                    waives all points of order;                
                          Employed.                                  Contains self-executing                    
                                                                     provision.                                 
H.R. 830...............  The Paperwork Reduction  H. Res. 91        Open........................            N/A.
                          Act.                                                                                  
H.R. 889...............  Emergency Supplemental/  H. Res. 92        Restrictive; makes in order              1D.
                          Rescinding Certain                         only the Obey substitute.                  
                          Budget Authority.                                                                     
H.R. 450...............  Regulatory Moratorium..  H. Res. 93        Restrictive; 10 hr. Time Cap            N/A.
                                                                     on amendments; Pre-printing                
                                                                     gets preference.                           
H.R. 1022..............  Risk Assessment........  H. Res. 96        Restrictive; 10 hr. Time Cap            N/A.
                                                                     on amendments.                             
H.R. 926...............  Regulatory Flexibility.  H. Res. 100       Open........................            N/A.
H.R. 925...............  Private Property         H. Res. 101       Restrictive; 12 hr. Time Cap             1D.
                          Protection Act.                            on amendments; Requires                    
                                                                     Members to pre-print their                 
                                                                     amendments in the Record                   
                                                                     prior to the bill's                        
                                                                     consideration for                          
                                                                     amendment; Waives                          
                                                                     germaneness and budget act                 
                                                                     points of order as well as                 
                                                                     points of order concerning                 
                                                                     appropriating on a                         
                                                                     legislative bill against                   
                                                                     the committee substitute                   
                                                                     used as base text.                         
H.R. 1058..............  Securities Litigation    H. Res. 103       Restrictive; 8 hr. Time Cap              1D.
                          Reform Act.                                on amendments; Pre-printing                
                                                                     gets preference; Makes in                  
                                                                     order the Wyden amendment                  
                                                                     and waives germaneness                     
                                                                     against it.                                
H.R. 988...............  The Attorney             H. Res. 104       Restrictive; 7 hr. Time Cap             N/A.
                          Accountability Act of                      on amendments; Pre-printing                
                          1995.                                      gets preference.                           
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: 74% restrictive; 26% open. These figures use Republican scoring methods from the 103rd Congress. Not      
  included in this chart are three bills which should have been placed on the Suspension Calendar. H.R. 101,    
  H.R. 400, H.R. 440.                                                                                           

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, I yield 
back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the 
resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.


  

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