[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H685-H691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CLASS ACTION FAIRNESS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, with the leave of the Speaker, we have 
the opportunity for the next hour to talk about major and historic 
legislation that will come before the Congress tomorrow.
  The Senate has already passed legislation reforming class action 
lawsuit abuses, and now the House of Representatives will take it up 
and pass it and send it to the President of the United States.
  Why is this such a historic occasion? Because abuses in class actions 
have been going on for many years. In fact, this House has worked for 
over 6 years to reform this difficulty and get to the point where we 
are today.
  This legislation has passed the House of Representatives in each of 
the last three Congresses, but each time it was stymied in the United 
States Senate. The fact of the matter is that as the legislation 
progressed through the House, it got more and more votes, more and more 
bipartisan support, but never could get the threshold needed to pass in 
the other body. That has now changed. The Senate has passed 
legislation. It is a little different from what the House has passed in 
the past, but it holds the same core principle of reforming the abuses 
that are taking place today all across the country with class action 
lawsuits.
  Some of these abuses are absolutely startling. In a nationwide class 
action lawsuit filed in Alabama against the Bank of Boston over 
mortgage escrow accounts, the class members won the case, but actually 
lost money. Under the settlement agreement, the 700,000 class members 
received small payments of just a couple of dollars or no money at all. 
About a year later they found out that anywhere from $90 to $140 had 
been deducted from their escrow accounts to pay their lawyers' legal 
feels of $8.5 million. In other words, they had to pay more than they 
have received in settlement in order to satisfy multi-million dollar 
attorneys' fees.
  When some of those class members sued their class action lawyers for 
malpractice, the lawyers countersued them for $25 million saying their 
former clients were trying to harass them.
  In another classic case, in the settlement of a class action lawsuit 
in Madison County, Illinois, against Thompson Consumer Electronics over 
alleged faulty television sets, consumers were eligible for rebates on 
future purchases ranging in value from $25 to $50 if you spent more 
than $100 on a Thompson Electronics product. So in other words, your 
settlements was a coupon to buy more of what was alleged to being 
defective in the first place.
  How did the attorneys do? Well, the attorneys pocketed $22 million in 
attorneys' fees. Some consumers reportedly walked away from the 
settlement altogether because the form was so complicated and the 
attorneys' fees were so high.
  Recently, President Bush had down at the Commerce Department a forum 
to discuss these abuses, and one of these plaintiffs in this Thompson 
Electronics case was there. And after explaining what she had been 
through and the frustration of having a television set that did not 
work and being represented in a class action that did not work and 
winding up with a coupon to buy something she did not want to buy and 
seeing the attorneys get $22 million in attorneys' fees, she said, 
Where is the justice in that?
  The fact of the matter is there is no justice in our current class 
action system and it is, in effect, a racket.
  How did we get to this point? Well, it has to do with a problem with 
our Federal laws. When our Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution, 
they very wisely provided for a Federal judiciary, a judiciary that 
could hear cases from different people in different States so that if 
in the founding of our country and ever since people felt that they 
might not be treated as fairly in a foreign jurisdiction in a court 
across the country somewhere far from where they have lived, they could 
have the opportunity to remove it to the Federal courts where they 
would in theory get more impartial treatment. This has persisted for 
the entire history of our country.
  However, our Founding Fathers never heard of class action lawsuits. 
They are a 20th-century development and they are not without their 
merit. Class actions afford efficiencies to our courts because if 
people have an identical claim against one or more defendants, they can 
be consolidated into a class and brought before the court in an 
efficient manner and sometimes these cases involve hundreds of 
thousands or even millions of plaintiffs.
  This legislation does nothing to affect the right of people to bring 
their class action lawsuits in State courts or Federal courts. But 
under the original establishment of our Federal courts, this diversity 
jurisdiction of the courts where you had parties from different States 
disputing each other, had to set a minimum amount before you could 
bring the case into courts; and over the years that number has risen to 
$75,000 per plaintiff.

  So in other words, if a person who lives in my State of Virginia has 
an injury in the State of Maryland across the Potomac River and they 
bring a lawsuit in the State court, if that case involves more than 
$75,000 in damages, the case can be removed to the Federal courts. 
However, when you apply that rule to class actions, it is the same. It 
is $75,000, but it is per plaintiff. So if you have a million 
plaintiffs in a case, you have to multiply by one million times $75,000 
or show a $75 billion case in order to get into Federal court. That is 
wrong, that a $75,000 simple case that can easily be handled in the 
State courts would be entitled to the Federal courts and a $75 billion 
case or say a $70 billion case, less than the $75 billion threshold 
there, cannot get into the Federal courts. It is wrong. It should be 
corrected, and this legislation does it in a very simple fashion.
  Instead of $75,000 per plaintiff, it is $5 million, but 5 million for 
the entire class, all the claims added together. And this will mean 
that no longer will you have what is called ``forum shopping'' taking 
place where the plaintiffs' attorneys can choose the jurisdiction they 
want to bring the case in and keep it there.
  Why is that significant? Because we have over 4,000 jurisdictions 
across the country, 4,000 different State jurisdictions, sometimes 
simple county governments, sometimes a collection of counties within a 
State, but 4,000 different places where you can bring a lawsuit. The 
plaintiffs attorneys, and there are only a small number of plaintiffs 
attorneys who handle these big class action lawsuits, the plaintiffs 
attorneys know which of those 4,000 jurisdictions, maybe a dozen, maybe 
two dozen of them, are overwhelmingly biased and favorable to the 
plaintiffs in a class action.
  There was one State court county in Alabama a few years ago where 
more nationwide class action lawsuits were considered in that one 
county than the entire Federal judiciary of more than 600 district 
court judges combined. That is an abuse. Today the same thing takes 
place in other jurisdictions around the country, and this legislation 
would correct that. More importantly, it would treat all the parties 
fairly because not only could the defendants remove a case to Federal 
courts, but any or all of the plaintiffs in the case would also have 
the right to remove that case to Federal court under appropriate 
circumstances. The judge would have discretion, if the case looked like 
it really did principally involve people in one State, it would be kept 
in that State. But if it clearly is a nationwide class action lawsuit, 
it can be moved to Federal court where it will get more even-handed 
treatment and a more standard application of the law then these select 
jurisdictions that are getting all the class action cases today. That 
is what the problem is.
  In addition to changing the jurisdictional requirements, there are 
also other things that will make it easier for plaintiffs to be treated 
fairly and defendants to be treated fairly as well. The Washington Post 
is one of more

[[Page H686]]

than 100 newspapers around the country that have endorsed this 
legislation. And they said it so wisely a few years ago. They have been 
supporting this for a long time. We do not often on our side of the 
aisle cite The Washington Post, but this gives you an idea of how 
serious this problem is and how widespread the support for this problem 
is: ``The clients get token payments while the lawyers get enormous 
fees. This is not justice. It is an extortion racket that only Congress 
can fix.''
  I say to my fellow Members of Congress, tomorrow we are going to do 
just that, and send a bill identical to the bill with the Senate to the 
President of the United States for signing into law to once and for all 
change this abusive extortion racket.
  At this time it is my pleasure to recognize some other Members who 
have come down to speak on this issue. The first one is a new Member of 
the Congress who campaigned for election on legal reforms and who has 
identified this legislation as something that has great merit and we 
thank him for his early support, that is, the gentleman from the State 
of Kentucky (Mr. Davis).

                              {time}  1545

  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Class Action Fairness 
Act, and I speak as a former small business owner who has watched 
industry damage, jobs lost and costs increased across the entire 
spectrum of our economy here in the United States.
  This legislation will put an end to trial attorneys' forum shopping 
to find a friendly court where settlement awards will line their 
pockets while hitting victims and consumers in their pocketbooks. For 
too long, we have watched State courts try to manage a crush of cases 
that have been increasing year by year and that should have never 
entered the courtroom. These frivolous lawsuits frankly are 
merchandising the process of justice, making a profit for the few for 
the expense of freedom, liberty, and justice for the majority of people 
in this country.
  Overall, class-action filings in the United States have increased 
1,000 percent in the last 10 years, yet there has been no increase in 
capacity in our courtrooms, and the net result of that is to assure 
that our courts are slowed. There is a tremendous backlog of legitimate 
cases that need to be heard, and we are doing our citizens a 
disservice, again while a few make a tremendous amount of money, and 
the alleged victims in these cases collect nothing in damages of any 
substance.
  In some jurisdictions, class-action filings have increased 4,000 
percent, virtually bringing the legal system to a halt in those areas. 
Let me repeat that because it is such a significant number. Class-
action filings in some jurisdictions have increased 4,000 percent. Mr. 
Speaker, this has become a money game, indeed a monopoly; ironically, 
very similar to the game of Monopoly.
  If we look at the chart to my right, we can see how that game is 
played. Those who are profiteering in this business come up with an 
idea for a lawsuit. The next thing they do is find a plaintiff to play 
that off and then finally make allegations. In fact, legitimate rules 
of evidence need not apply here to simply get a forum to create press 
and public opinion. And finally, they are free from rule 23 to begin 
shopping these cases.
  I have seen it in a variety of industries. I have seen it hurt our 
veterans in many ways while lining the pockets of just a few plaintiff 
attorneys in just a few States, and at the end of the day, business is 
impeded, jobs are going to be lost, and are lost in a wide variety of 
sectors.
  Let us look at an example of a variety of these claims. Blockbuster, 
the video rental company, had a claim against it. $9.25 million were 
paid to the attorneys who were bringing forth that case. What was the 
benefit of it to the alleged victims in that case? Free movie coupons. 
This is an injustice. It is a misuse of our legal system, and frankly, 
I believe that that money was unethically acquired by those attorneys 
utilizing the judicial system in an inappropriate way.
  The Bank of Boston case, $8.5 million were paid to attorneys, and 
indeed, some of the plaintiffs at the end of the settlement had to pay 
legal fees to cover the damages.
  What happens to us? Our employers are hit. Our health insurance and 
liability policies in small business go up. Ultimately, plaintiffs' 
attorneys win and the consumer loses. Every Member of this body loses. 
The American citizen loses.
  Unfortunately, the result of this class-action process, what it has 
become is it makes many of these settlements pass on to consumers 
considerable hikes in goods and services. It limits our access to 
markets, and frankly, it limits our ability to compete in the global 
economy for us, right now. This is bad for us as consumers and in 
business and for citizens.
  The Class Action Fairness Act offers solutions to judicial loopholes 
that are abused by a minority of trial attorneys. It does not impede 
the filing of any legitimate claim nor does it prohibit legitimate 
claimants from seeking redress from a company that has harmed them. Let 
me make it clear. We are not preventing anybody from having a right to 
redress for legitimate damages. We are simply preventing a scourge that 
is hurting our Nation and our economy now.
  The Class Action Fairness Act allows Federal courts to hear cases 
that involve true interstate issues while preserving the State courts 
for true local issues, which is as the founders built it into the 
Constitution.
  This is a good bill. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support it.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. We are also joined 
by another leader for legal reforms, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Keller), who has been very supportive of this class-action legislation 
for several years now, and we thank him for his leadership on the issue 
and I am pleased to yield to him.
  Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for 
yielding. Our colleagues in Congress owe the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Goodlatte) a great debt of gratitude for successfully and 
persistently pursuing this legislation for a great number of years, and 
tomorrow he will finally put the ball in the end zone, and he is to be 
congratulated.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this class-action 
reform legislation.
  The bottom line is that class-action reform is badly needed. 
Currently, crafty lawyers are able to game the system by filing large, 
nationwide class-action suits in certain preferred State courts like 
Madison County, Illinois, where judges are quick to certify class 
actions and quick to approve settlements which reward attorneys with 
millions of dollars but give their clients worthless coupons.
  Speaking of Madison County, let us look at this chart here, and as we 
can see, Madison County, Illinois, which by the way has been called the 
number one judicial hellhole in the United States, there were 77 class-
action lawsuits filed in 2002 and 106 class-action lawsuits filed in 
2003. Now, the movie ``Bridges of Madison County'' was a love story. 
The ``Judges of Madison County'' would be a horror flick.
  Unfortunately, all too often it is the lawyers who drive these cases 
and not the individuals who are allegedly injured. For example, in a 
suit against Blockbuster for late fees, the attorneys received $9.25 
million for themselves while their clients got a coupon for a $1 
discount on their next video rental.
  Similarly, in a lawsuit against the company who makes Cheerios, the 
attorneys received $2 million for themselves, while the plaintiffs 
received a coupon for a free box of Cheerios.
  In a nutshell, these out of control class-action lawsuits are killing 
jobs, hurting small business people who cannot afford to defend 
themselves and hurting consumers who have to pay a larger amount for 
goods and services.
  This legislation provides much-needed reform in two key areas. First, 
it eliminates much of the forum shopping by requiring that most of 
these nationwide class-action claims be filed in Federal court.
  Second, it cracks down on these coupon-based, class-action 
settlements by requiring that attorney-fee awards be based either on 
the value of the coupons actually redeemed or by the hours actually 
billed by the attorney in prosecuting the case.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation should comfortably pass the U.S. House 
of

[[Page H687]]

Representatives tomorrow. Last week, this exact bill received 72 votes, 
broad bipartisan support, in the U.S. Senate, and last year we passed a 
very similar class-action reform bill in the U.S. House with 253 votes.
  I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this class-action reform 
legislation. It is about justice. It is about common sense and it is 
about time.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  One of the issues that the critics of this legislation argue is that 
it would undermine federalism principles by removing to Federal courts 
cases that should be decided by the State courts. Well, that is exactly 
the opposite of what is going on here. These critics are wrong.
  The Class Action Fairness Act restores, rather than undermines, 
federalism principles. Why is that? Because, as I noted earlier, the 
fact of the matter is that these cases involve plaintiffs from often 
all 50 jurisdictions, and when the case is brought in one State court, 
in one county in that State, and that judge then makes a decision, that 
judge is deciding the law, not just for the State of Illinois, if you 
happen to be in Madison County, but he or she is deciding that case for 
all 50 States, and that is something that our Constitution intends be 
available to people to have decided not in one particular State court 
jurisdiction but in our Federal courts. That is one of the principal 
reasons why our Federal courts were established, and it is in those 
courts that these types of cases should be heard, but under the current 
rules they cannot be.
  So what happens in Madison County, Illinois, as this chart shows, 
affects the whole country. The overwhelming majority of class actions 
filed in Madison County are nationwide lawsuits in which 99 percent of 
the class members live outside of the county. As a result, decisions 
reached in Madison County's courts affect consumers all over the 
country, and the county's elected judges effectively set national 
policies on important commercial issues.
  So, in terms of restoring States rights, that is exactly what this 
legislation does. It makes sure that the rights of all 50 States are 
protected in the judicial proceedings related to class-action lawsuits 
and that one State does not have the opportunity to establish policy 
that directly affects other States.
  Let me give my colleagues another example of that. Several years ago, 
State Farm Insurance Company was sued because they were requiring their 
adjusters in automobile cases to calculate the adjustments using what 
are called after-market parts. After-market parts are not used parts. 
They are new parts, but made by companies other than the original 
manufacturer of the automobile. There is nothing wrong with the quality 
of the parts, but they are often less expensive because they are 
manufactured in a competitive environment where anybody can make these 
parts. Therefore, the price is generally lower. And the reason why 
State Farm was doing that was in part because it is good policy to save 
money for your insureds and keep your insureds premiums low, but also 
because many of the insurance commissioners of the 50 States also 
encouraged or, as in the case of Massachusetts, even required the use 
of after-market parts wherever possible.
  Well, this suit was brought, alleging that that was wrong, and State 
Farm was put in a position of being in a court in Illinois in which 
they were going to have the decisions of the 50 State insurance 
commissioners, none of whom had any problem with this policy, 
overturned by one court judge who was not even experienced in terms of 
handling insurance policies like the insurance commissioners are that 
do it day in and day out every day, but one judge could overturn the 
policies of the other 50 States. So that, indeed, is a reason for 
concern.
  What happened? State Farm decided to go to court, to go to trial in 
that case and they lost. That jury and that judge found a $1.3 billion 
liability for something that 50 State insurance commissioners said was 
a perfectly legitimate thing to do, that was actually saving consumers 
money, but now, because they could not remove the case to Federal 
court, they got stuck with a $1.3 billion judgment.
  Can my colleagues imagine the effect that has on the company's 
ability to borrow money on the value of the stock of the shareholders 
of a company? It has a devastating impact. That case is still under 
appeal.
  Other companies see that and they know that when they get into these 
particular hand-picked jurisdictions where the judges and juries are 
known to be biased in favor of the plaintiff, in virtually every 
instance they know that when you get brought into those courts and you 
cannot remove the case to Federal court, where they will get fairer 
treatment, they better settle up. That is why we get some of these 
abusive cases like this one I want to bring to my colleagues' 
attention.

                              {time}  1600

  This one involved Chase Manhattan Bank. Chase Manhattan Bank was 
sued, and they settled the case rather than go to court and risk that. 
Well, what do you suppose the plaintiffs got in that settlement? This 
is an actual copy of one of those settlements. Thirty cents. That is 
what each plaintiff got in the case. What did the plaintiffs' attorneys 
get? They got $4 million in attorneys' fees. But the people they 
represented got 33 cents each.
  There was a catch, though. That was back when postage cost 34 cents 
and you had to use a 34 cent postage stamp to mail in your acceptance 
of the 33 cent settlement, for a net loss of one cent. How ridiculous 
can you get.
  It has an impact on other insurance companies, too. A few years ago, 
I found I had been made a plaintiff in a case brought in Santa Fe, New 
Mexico, against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. What was 
it alleged Massachusetts Mutual had done wrong? Well, when you get your 
premium, your bill, from Massachusetts Mutual, you can pay it on a 
monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. If you pay it on a monthly basis, 
you pay a little more than on a quarterly basis, and that is a little 
bit more than on an annual basis. Why? Because if you pay on an annual 
basis, it costs them a lot less money to send out one bill than to send 
out 12 bills a year, and they have the opportunity to get that money 
sooner invested. So it is a little less expensive to them, and they 
pass that savings along to the consumer.
  The plaintiff in this case and their attorney said they should have 
to spell out exactly what the difference in savings is rather than 
simply look at the bill and see that these payments are 12 times what 
there is and that that is a little more. They said they had to make a 
disclosure under laws that are not even supposed to apply to insurance 
companies.
  Well, they went ahead and settled that case. Why? I asked them. They 
said because they did not want to get in the same situation that State 
Farm Insurance Company found itself in with a $1.3 million lawsuit. 
What was the agreed-upon settlement they sent to the judge in that 
Santa Fe, New Mexico, court? Well, it provided for $13 million in 
attorneys' fees, $5 million up front, $5 million over a period of time, 
and a nice $3 million universal life insurance policy for the 
plaintiffs' attorneys. Is that not nice?
  Now, what did the plaintiffs get? The plaintiffs, all the plaintiffs 
got a promise that Massachusetts Mutual would not do this again. Now 
there is a new settlement proposed because that one actually was 
withdrawn when they realized how embarrassing it was for the 
plaintiffs' attorneys to get $13 million in fees and the plaintiffs 
would simply get a promise for nothing. Now they have changed it so the 
plaintiffs might get as much as $50 off on their policy. The 
plaintiffs' attorneys would still get the massive 8-digit settlement 
amount in the multimillions of dollars.
  That is wrong. And it is just one more clear example of evidence why 
this is an extortion racket. Here are some more of what we call the 
class action wheel of fortune.
  If you are a company, or if you work for a company that gets caught 
up in the class action wheel of fortune, watch out, because it can 
affect your job, it can affect the success of your company and get you 
tied up in these multimillion dollar cases where there really is little 
or no damage; or, even if there is, like there was in the Thompson 
Electronics case, where the television sets were not working, the 
attorneys got $22 million and the plaintiffs got a coupon, a $50 coupon 
or a $25 coupon to buy more of the same thing

[[Page H688]]

they were not happy about in the first place.
  Now, let us look at the class action wheel of fortune. Kay Bee Toys. 
The lawyers spin the wheel and get $1 million. The consumers get 30 
percent off on selected products for 1 week. One week to go to the 
store and use your coupon to buy certain selected products. Maybe if 
you are unhappy with Kay Bee Toys in the first place you do not want to 
go back to settle with them. But that is okay, that is what you get, 
and the lawyers get a million.
  Poland Spring Water, $1.35 million for the lawyers, and the consumers 
got a coupon for more water.
  Ameritech, $16 million for the lawyers. The consumers? A $5 phone 
card.
  Premier Cruise Lines, the lawyers got $887,000. The consumers, $30 to 
$40 cruise coupons. If you were not happy with your cruise and were 
part of this lawsuit, the lawyers got almost $1 million and you got a 
$30 to $40 coupon for future use on a cruise.
  How about computer monitor litigation involving several companies. 
The lawyers got $6 million and the consumers got a $13 rebate on future 
product purchases.
  Register.com, the lawyers got $642,500 and the consumers $5 coupons.
  This kind of abuse is what this legislation is designed to correct. 
It is time to end the class action wheel of fortune and benefit all 
consumers in America who do not seek companies treated in this fashion 
and lawyers lining their pockets with excessive attorneys' fees because 
they have an extortion situation or the defendant in the case knows 
that if they do not pay those big attorneys' fees and get away with 
giving a coupon or something to the plaintiffs themselves, they could 
go to court and wind up with a much larger judgment because they are in 
an unfair, hostile court, just like State Farm found itself in.
  We are going to change that so that people, when they see this 
situation, both the plaintiffs who find themselves made a party to a 
case and the defendants, can remove that case to Federal court. They 
will still have a right to bring the class action, but it will be 
examined and dealt with under more standard rules and in a fairer and 
more impartial judiciary.
  We have more examples. This is the apple juice example. As this chart 
shows, in the settlement of a class action lawsuit alleging that Coca 
Cola improperly added sweeteners to apple juice, it was the lawyers who 
got a sweet deal: $1.5 million in fees and costs. Unfortunately, class 
members came up empty again, receiving 50-cent coupons but no cash.

  Crayola Crayons. Another favorite American brand. In the settlement 
of a class action lawsuit over alleged improper manufacturing of 
Crayola Crayons, consumers received 75-cent coupons to buy more of the 
crayons, while their lawyers pocketed $600,000 in attorneys' fees.
  Then we have the famous golf ball case. In the settlement of a class 
action lawsuit over the terms of a promotion for Pinnacle golf balls, 
the manufacturer paid $100,000 in attorneys' fees and no cash to class 
members, who received three free golf balls.
  Well, thankfully, people are beginning to recognize this abuse. 
Newspapers all across the country, newspapers whose editorial boards 
reflect widely different ideological viewpoints on many issues have 
found common ground on the need to adopt the Class Action Fairness Act. 
More than 100 editorials so far support the legislation.
  I earlier cited The Washington Post. They also had this to say about 
it: ``No area of U.S. civil justice cries out more urgently for reform 
than the high-stakes extortion racket of class actions, in which truly 
crazy rules permit trial lawyers to cash in at the expense of 
businesses. Passing this bill would be an important start to 
rationalizing a system that is out of control.''
  The Chicago Tribune said that the Class Action Fairness Act would 
``substantially end the practice of forum shopping, stop seeking a home 
in State courts that are deemed most likely to produce juicy 
settlements. This would go a long way to halt the worst class action 
abuses. It should be the law.'' And very soon after tomorrow, it will 
be the law.
  News Day, a Long Island newspaper, said: ``In a deal that should 
cement class action lawsuit reform, three Democratic Senators have now 
signaled support for a bill. The tweaks they won made a good bill 
better. Class action lawsuits are ripe for reform. The Senate bill 
would curtail abuses by moving the largest nationwide class actions 
into Federal courts and toughening judicial scrutiny of settlements. 
The changes Democrats won will help ensure that largely local cases 
remain in State courts. Congress should enact this needed reform.''
  The Orlando Sentinel said: ``The Senate's proposal is worthy of 
becoming law.''
  The Providence Journal, from Rhode Island: ``The Senate should pass a 
long overdue reform to curb abuses in class action lawsuits. Class 
action suits involving interstate commerce, which is implied by having 
plaintiffs in more than one State, clearly belong in Federal court. The 
consumers should no longer have to bear the onerous costs of the 
practice of venue shopping.''
  Spokesman Review, from Washington State: ``The Class Action Fairness 
Act would restore common sense to a valid and needed legal procedure.''
  The Hartford Courant: ``After 5 years of trying, Congress appears 
ready to curtail the worst abuses. Legislators have debated the issue 
long enough. There is no good reason to wait another year to adopt this 
important reform.''
  They said that last August. They had to wait another year. Let us 
hope they do not have to wait any longer than tomorrow when we will 
have a big bipartisan vote in support of this reform.
  Earlier, I think one of my colleagues mentioned the Blockbuster case. 
That is the deal where in the settlement of a class action lawsuit 
filed in Texas against Blockbuster Video over late fees, currently on 
appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, the plaintiffs' lawyers will receive 
$9.25 million in fees and expenses and the class members will receive 
two coupons for movie rentals and a $1-off coupon.
  While the lawyers made enough money to produce their own movie, 
Blockbuster customers could not even use their coupons to buy a bag of 
popcorn, because their coupons only covered nonfood items. The 
settlement allows Blockbuster to continue its practice of charging 
customers for a new rental period when they return a tape late. 
Blockbuster later changed that policy, but they should not be put in a 
position of being in a hostile court where attorneys get a $9.25 
million settlement, and all they do is antagonize their consumers by 
giving them coupons.
  In State court class actions, the lawyers take the money. The Bank of 
Boston case. The lawyers, $8.5 million. The plaintiffs actually lost 
money. The Blockbuster case. The lawyers, $9.25 million. The 
plaintiffs, $1 off the next movie. The Coca Cola case. The lawyers, 
$1.5 million and the plaintiffs, 50-cent coupons.
  And how about Cheerios? A honey of a deal if you are an attorney. As 
part of a settlement of a class action lawsuit in Cook County, 
Illinois, against the manufacturer of Cheerios, the company put coupons 
for a free box of cereal in the newspapers, but it was the plaintiffs' 
lawyers who got the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. They milked 
the company for $2 million in fees, an estimated $1,200 per hour for 
their legal services. For these class action attorneys, Cheerios truly 
proved to be a ``honey of an O.''
  In the case involving a lawsuit filed in California, more than 50 
well-known computer manufacturers and distributors were accused of 
misrepresenting the screen size of their computer monitors. The 
nationwide class of an estimated 40 million consumers received an offer 
of a $13 rebate on new computers. That is great. You have a computer 
screen that probably does not bother most people that the size of the 
computer screen was a little different than was represented to them, 
but if they want to go out and buy a whole new computer, get a new 
screen, the size they might want, they get a $13 rebate. How do you 
suppose the attorneys did? Well, they got $6 million in legal fees.
  In a recent class action lawsuit in Cane County, Illinois, against 
Poland Spring, the class members claimed that the company's bottled 
water was not pure and was not from a spring. Under the settlement, the 
consumers received coupons for a discount. On

[[Page H689]]

what? More Poland Spring water. Poland Spring admitted no wrongdoing, 
and it is not changing anything about the way it bottles or markets its 
waters. So what was that worth to all those plaintiffs, who were 
represented by the attorneys in that case, who got the opportunity to 
get a coupon for more water? Well, those lawyers who did that good 
work, they got $1.3 million in attorneys' fees.
  How about this one, where the lawyers sail away with fees and the 
consumers get coupons. In a class action lawsuit filed in Florida 
against Premier Cruise Lines, consumers allege they were charged for 
port charges higher than Premier actually paid. Under the settlement, 
the class members received coupons for a $30 to $40 discount on another 
cruise line, because Premier had since gone out of business.
  Imagine that. A many-thousands-of-dollars cruise, and you can get a 
$30 or $40 discount if you use this coupon. What do you suppose the 
lawyers got? They got nearly $900,000 in attorneys' fees. While the 
lawyers made off with all the money, another cruise line gained a 
promotional opportunity.
  The lawyers receive $1 million and sell out their class in the Cook 
County, Illinois, case against Kay Bee Toys over alleged deceptive 
pricing practices. The toy company paid attorneys and fees costing $1 
million, but no cash to the class members. As part of the settlement, 
the store held a 1-week, unadvertised 30-percent-off sale on selected 
products.
  My colleagues, this is indeed an abuse.
  In addition, we want to mention something that helps these consumers 
in these cases. These coupon settlements will get much closer scrutiny 
after this law takes effect.

                              {time}  1615

  The bill provides a number of new protections for plaintiff class 
members, what you might call a consumer bill of rights, including 
greater judicial scrutiny for settlements that provide class members 
only coupons as relief for their injuries. The bill also bars the 
approval of settlements in which class members suffer a net loss. In 
addition, the bill includes provisions that protect consumers from 
being disadvantaged by living far away from the courthouse.
  These additional consumer protections will ensure that class-action 
lawsuits benefit the consumers they are intended to compensate. This 
legislation does not limit the ability of anyone to file a class-action 
lawsuit. It does not change anyone's right to recovery. It simply 
closes the loophole allowing Federal courts to hear big lawsuits 
involving truly interstate cases, while ensuring that purely local 
controversies remain in State courts.
  This is exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when 
they established Federal diversity jurisdiction. It has taken us more 
than 200 years but it is now time to make clear that these devices that 
the framers of the Constitution did not know about, but, certainly if 
they did, would be very concerned about, now would be entitled to be 
heard in the court best suited to decide these complicated, multistate, 
multiplaintiff, sometimes millions of plaintiff cases, sometimes many 
defendants in the case.
  Mr. Speaker, there are more abuses of class-action lawsuits. I think 
we have covered a great many of them. I think we have made plain that 
this is a situation deserving of repair by the Congress. In fact, I 
have been working on this legislation for over 6 years and it is long 
overdue. These abuses keep piling up. Each time we bring the 
legislation up, we have more and more of these examples.
  It is long overdue that we finally have the opportunity to correct 
this problem. It is one that has a very simple correction. End the 
abusive forum shopping by a handful of lawyers who specialize in these 
cases and know the handful of jurisdictions where they are going to get 
this kind of spectacular treatment on one side and unfair treatment on 
the other side, and let us go to what our judicial system is supposed 
to be all about; and that is fair treatment, equal application of the 
laws and standards that are imposed to make sure that these kinds of 
abusive cases are heard in fair courts, so that businesses do not feel 
like they are forced to deal with a situation where they have to settle 
the case because they know they are in a jurisdiction that is going to 
be unfair to them and do not want to wind up in the same situation that 
State Farm Insurance Company found itself in several years ago, and is 
still in, because of the slow time it takes to handle an appeal through 
the courts.
  In recent years State courts have been flooded with class actions. As 
a result of the adoption of different class-action certification 
standards in the various States, the same class might be certifiable in 
one State and not another, or certifiable in State court but not in 
Federal court. This creates the potential for abuse of the class-action 
device, particularly when the case involves parties from multiple 
States or requires the application of the laws of many States.
  For example, some State courts routinely certify classes before the 
defendant is even served with a complaint and given a chance to defend 
itself. Other State courts employ very lax class-action treatment 
certification criteria, rendering virtually any controversy subject to 
class-action treatment.
  There are instances where a State court in order to certify a class 
has determined that the law of that State applies to all claims, 
including those of purported class members who live in other States. 
This has the effect of making the law of that State applicable 
nationwide. Where is the State's rights in that? Where are the 
principles of federalism in that, where one State court judge can tell 
the other 49 States what the law should be in their States? That is not 
what is intended and that is why our Founding Fathers intended to have 
Federal courts handle cases just like these.
  The existence of State courts that broadly apply class certification 
rules encourages plaintiffs to forum shop for the court that is most 
likely to certify a purported class. Believe me, they do just that. 
Because most State courts are going to do a good job handling class 
actions, but because the system is designed the way it is, those 
attorneys will bring those cases to just a handful, a dozen or two 
dozen jurisdictions around the country, and that is what creates the 
unfairness and that is why the Federal courts need to be available as a 
forum to decide these cases if any of the parties choose to seek to 
remove the case to those courts.
  In addition to forum shopping, parties frequently exploit major 
loopholes in Federal jurisdiction statutes to block the removal of 
class actions that belong in Federal court. For example, plaintiffs' 
counsel may name parties that are not really relevant to the class 
claims in an effort to destroy diversity. How fair is that? Somebody 
gets sued and added to a lawsuit not because they have done anything 
wrong, but because by adding them into the case they can prevent the 
case from being removed to Federal court. That abuse is also corrected.
  In other cases, counsel may waive Federal law claims. In other words, 
not fully represent their clients, the plaintiffs, in some of the 
measures that may be available to them under Federal laws, simply 
ignore those rights, ignore those laws, and bring the case in State 
court so that it cannot be removed to the Federal court. It will remain 
in the State court.
  Another problem created by the ability of State courts to certify 
class actions which adjudicate the rights of citizens of many States is 
that oftentimes more than one case involving the same class is 
certified at the same time; in other words, in two different States or 
in two different counties of the same State. Under the Federal rules, 
that problem is solved.
  In the Federal court system, those cases involving common questions 
of fact may be transferred to one district for coordinated or 
consolidated pretrial proceedings. When these class actions are pending 
in State courts, however, there is no corresponding mechanism for 
consolidating the competing suits. It is inefficient, it is wasteful, 
and it results in unfair and differing results when you have two 
different State courts deciding the same thing for the same nationwide 
group of plaintiffs. There is no corresponding mechanism for 
consolidating the competing suits in State courts. Instead, a 
settlement or judgment in any of the cases makes

[[Page H690]]

the other class actions moot. This creates an incentive for each class 
counsel to obtain a quick settlement of the case, to be the first one 
to settle, and an opportunity for the defendant to play the various 
class counsels against each other and drive the settlement value down.

  The loser in this system is always the class members, the plaintiffs, 
the people who are getting these coupons and so on, while they watch 
their attorneys get multimillion-dollar settlements. The loser in the 
system is the class member whose claim is extinguished by the 
settlement at the expense of counsel seeking to be the one entitled to 
recovery of fees.
  This bill is designed to prevent these abuses by allowing large 
interstate class-action cases to be heard in Federal court. It would 
expand the statutory diversity jurisdiction of the Federal courts to 
allow class-action cases to be brought in or removed to Federal court.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey), 
another Member of the House who has been a major contributor to our 
effort to reform class-action lawsuit abuse, someone who has championed 
legal reform and has done an outstanding job representing his 
constituents.
  Mr. GINGREY. I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) for 
allowing me to participate in this hour to discuss something of such 
tremendous import to the people of this country and to the small 
business men and women who are suffering so much because of class 
action and lawsuit abuse.
  The President was so clear in his recent State of the Union address 
in talking about the need to reform the civil justice system. He talked 
about it being kind of a three-legged stool. And class action is an 
extremely important part of that reform; asbestos litigation and how we 
deal with a trust fund for people that have been possibly exposed to, 
and more serious, if they actually have health problems related to 
asbestos. We need to make sure that that is done in a fair way so that 
those who are truly hurt are the ones that benefit from any awards that 
are given or, in the case of asbestos, from a trust fund that is set 
up.
  Class-action reform is something that we have been trying to do in 
this Congress for a long time. Our friends on the other side of the 
aisle like to say that this is a bill that has not been marked up, that 
we just bring this before the House and it does not go through the 
committee and it does not go through the hearings and the markup of 
that sort of thing.
  Senate bill 5, which we are dealing with now, which we will have an 
opportunity to debate tomorrow and pass in this Chamber, is almost the 
exact same bill, I think it is H.R. 1115, that passed this body in the 
108th Congress and passed with really strong bipartisan support.
  So these arguments from the other side suggesting that we are rushing 
something through, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, in 
the Rules Committee, of which I am a member, we agreed to make in order 
a rule, an amendment in the nature of a substitute from our friends on 
the other side of the aisle. In that amendment essentially is every 
amendment, maybe except for one, but almost every amendment that was 
offered to this bill, Senate bill 5, in the other body that was 
thoroughly discussed and debated and defeated in a bipartisan fashion.
  We are going to give those on the other side of the aisle an 
opportunity for one more bite at the apple tomorrow in the abundance of 
fairness, to give them an opportunity to argue those points once again. 
I think that it is time. Over 10 years we have been working on this 
bill, long before I got to the Congress.
  Let me just, if I might, go through a little bit of chronology in 
regard to this bill. The 105th Congress, that is four Congresses ago, 8 
years ago, almost 10 years ago, the Senate had a bill, 2083, Class 
Action Fairness Act. The Senate hearing held, reported by the Senate 
subcommittee. H.R. 3789, Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1998, 
committee hearing, markup held, reported from the House Judiciary 
Committee, 17-12.
  106th Congress, H.R. 1875, Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act 
of 1999. Committee hearing, markup held. Passed the floor of this body 
222-207.
  107th Congress, H.R. 2341, Class Action Fairness Act, committee 
hearing, markup held, passed floor 233-190. And on and on and on. So 
those who would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that this has not had a fair 
hearing, nothing could be further from the truth.
  I want to ask my colleagues to look at this slide here to my left and 
the title of the slide, ``Who Wins?'' This is pretty clear. This would 
be a typical class-action abuse case. Maybe it was in Madison County, 
Illinois, where so many of these cases are filed in State court. I do 
not know if this particular one was there but we know lots of cases 
have been filed there in Madison County. Class members. Coupons for 
crayons, a video rental, apple juice, popcorn, golf balls. And what do 
the plaintiffs' attorneys get? $11.45 million. That is the problem.
  Let me just give you an example of another case, this one from Texas, 
Jefferson County State Court. Shields et al. v. Bridgestone. The suit 
involves customers who had Firestone tires that were among those that 
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated or 
recalled, but who did not suffer any personal injury or property 
damage. After a Federal appeals court rejected class certification, the 
plaintiffs' counsel and Firestone negotiated a settlement which has now 
been approved by the Texas State court. Under the settlement, the 
company has agreed to redesign certain tires, in fact, a move that 
already was underway irrespective of this lawsuit, and also to develop 
a 3-year consumer education and awareness campaign. But the members of 
the class received nada. Nothing. The lawyers? They got $19 million.
  This, Mr. Speaker, is why I am here and grateful to the chairman for 
letting me participate in this Special Order to make sure that we all 
understand that when people are injured, when people need a redress of 
their grievances, they do not need to be getting coupons that are 
worthless unless they take the trouble of redeeming them, and then they 
are worth very little and all the money goes to plaintiffs' attorneys. 
This is just about leveling the playing field.

                              {time}  1630

  We will be talking about the other two legs of the stool. I mentioned 
asbestos and, of course, civil justice reform in regard to medical 
liability, the Health Act of 2003, so-called tort reform. That is the 
other leg of the stool that we need to address, because the unintended 
consequences of not doing anything is if you put small businessmen and 
-women totally out of business because of the cost of defending these 
frivolous cases in the health care field, people do not have access to 
health care in a timely fashion.
  Then doctors who practice in a high-risk specialty, such as emergency 
room care or obstetrics or neurosurgery, hang up their stethoscopes and 
white coats and pick up a fishing rod or a set of golf clubs at the 
prime of their career.
  So that is why we are here. There is why this is so important. I 
thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. I thank the gentleman for his support of this 
legislation and his very cogent reasoning about why it is needed.
  I have one last chart I want to show before we close, and that is 
this poll taken in USA Today about the opinions of the public on class 
action lawsuits.
  As I said at the outset, this bill does not take away the right of 
anybody to bring a class action lawsuit, and class action lawsuits have 
their place in our legal system.
  But the American public knows what is going on. When they were asked 
who benefits most from class action lawsuits? Lawyers for the 
plaintiffs, by far the number one answer. Forty-seven percent.
  The second answer, lawyers for the companies. They get paid too, 20 
percent. The companies being sued 7 percent. Remember they get to give 
out those products promoting their products. They get out of what could 
be a worse situation. And the buyers of the products, 5 percent. And 
the plaintiffs 9 percent.
  The overwhelming majority of the public, more than 70 percent, know

[[Page H691]]

that class action lawsuits are not serving the people that they are 
supposed to serve. The lawyers get the cash, the plaintiffs get the 
coupons, the consumers pay higher prices for goods and services, and it 
is an abuse.
  Tomorrow we have the opportunity to correct it once and for all, to 
pass a bill that will be identical to the bill passed by the Senate and 
send it to the President of the United States for his signature. He has 
been a champion on this issue. He has indicated his willingness to sign 
that legislation.
  I urge my colleagues to get the job done, to pass this legislation 
and reform the abuses in our class action lawsuit industry that have 
taken place, and let us return it to class action justice for 
plaintiffs who deserve it.

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