[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 11 (Monday, February 7, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S997-S998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS

  Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, Senator Frist came to the Senate to make 
some opening remarks about the class action bill that will be before 
the Senate. There will be a very good debate on this bill. I will make 
a couple of points.
  The Senator said every 2 seconds a lawsuit is filed. I have no reason 
to doubt his number, but I wonder if he has looked at who is filing the 
lawsuits. The last time I looked, it was mostly one business suing 
another business. So before we come to the Senate and say we have to do 
something about the class action lawsuits, saying every 2 seconds a 
lawsuit is filed gives the wrong impression. We are going to get the 
exact numbers, but I make that point.

  What we will find among colleagues, regardless of party, we all want 
to make sure these lawsuits are fair and that they are heard in a fair 
way. It appears when a class action lawsuit winds up in a Federal 
court, the judge, on many occasions, if not most occasions, refuses to 
hear it because the plaintiffs come from so many different States. I 
will give an example of what these lawsuits are about.
  When we talk about lawyers, we talk about fees, we talk about costs 
the lawyers have, or the time they have. We are overlooking the main 
point, which is: what are these class action lawsuits about? I will 
talk about a couple of these lawsuits because we need to put a human 
face on what they are.
  Rob Sanders of Maryland explained how his daughter was killed, as 
were other children, by a deployed airbag in a Chrysler minivan. For 
years, consumers have pursued class action cases against Chrysler to 
force the company to replace existing airbags in such vehicles with 
others that deploy less rapidly and do not pose a safety risk to

[[Page S998]]

the car's occupant. As someone who is small in stature, I can say the 
automobile companies make these airbags to protect people who are much 
larger and much heavier, and much taller than appropriate for children. 
We have seen children killed by these airbags.
  We all want airbags that work, regardless of our weight, our height, 
or stature. A class action was blocked in a Louisiana Federal court 
because the judge threw up his hands. But in Oklahoma--as we all know, 
that is a conservative State--the State court is proceeding to look at 
this even though the company has been working for years to block it. We 
are talking about life and death. We are talking about real victims.
  Let's talk about the ability to make a living. Georgie Hartwig of 
Washington State is a former Wal-Mart employee who was cheated out of 
overtime pay. This is a common practice, unfortunately, at many of the 
company stores. Her class action case is being heard in State court. 
Three Federal courts have refused to hear such Wal-Mart cases, whereas 
five State courts have allowed them.
  I am hopeful as we move this bill forward, we will ensure that at 
least some court will hear these important cases. They involve real 
people. I am sure Georgie Hartwig of Washington State and her 
colleagues at Wal-Mart have to raise a family and pay the rent. If we 
have a system that simply shuts the courthouse door, be it a State 
courthouse or a Federal courthouse, we are not fulfilling our job to 
make sure people get justice, they get it expeditiously, and it is done 
fairly.
  Shelly Toliver is a firefighter from Connecticut. These are the 
people we are talking about here--Americans. Shelly Toliver, a 
firefighter from Connecticut, described how she brought a State class 
action suit against Credit Acceptance Corporation of Michigan for 
cheating her and other consumers out of their vehicles in violation of 
Connecticut law, destroying their credit ratings in the process. We all 
know what it is to get a bad credit rating by mistake. It is terrible. 
Ultimately, the class members had their purported debt to the company 
wiped out and their bad ratings cleared because they were able to get 
their case heard.

  It goes on and on. I hope as we get through this bill we will be 
honest with the American people regarding whose rights are at stake. We 
are supposed to be here for the rights of the men and women of this 
country, the families of this country. The corporations, which are 
rather faceless, I support when they do the right thing, but when they 
do not do the right thing, when they wrong a firefighter, if an 
automobile company does not do what they should to protect children, 
there ought to be justice. That is all we are saying.
  Are there abuses? Yes. Should we resolve them? Yes. I am very happy 
to do that. It is true, we have abuses everywhere. We should fix those 
abuses.
  We have to be careful we are being sincere. There is one colleague 
who has been very strong on capping pain and suffering, but when it 
happened in his own family, he went for the gold. So let's be careful. 
The American people are watching. If we say we ought to cap pain and 
suffering for our constituents--forget about it, one size fits all. 
This is not class action, but these are other kinds of cases this 
Republican Senate is coming after: one size fits all. Let's cap it it 
is killing us; it is killing the country.
  I go to the supermarket every week. No one comes up to me and says, 
please, please, do something about the filing of lawsuits when their 
child died in a hospital. What they will say to me is, make sure there 
is fairness for victims.
  Let's get together and do the things that have to be done so that the 
people who get the benefit are our constituents. Do not close the 
courthouse door to firefighters, moms and dads, who are working for 
justice in their lives.

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