[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18324-18325]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          ENDING LAWSUIT ABUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Carter). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is 
recognized during morning hour debates.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, frivolous, parasitic lawsuits are a clear and 
present danger to the economic health of the United States. They clog 
our courts, generate billions of dollars in administrative fees, 
artificially raise insurance premiums, kill jobs, stifle investment and 
innovation and otherwise produce little else for American society but 
headaches and lawyer jokes.
  It has been and remains a principle of the Republican congressional 
majority to rein in trial lawyers and their predatory, self-serving 
litigation, thereby protecting American jobs and companies from their 
crippling effects.
  The pestilent culture of hyper-litigation now corrupting our legal 
system may be championed in the name of ``the little guy,'' but the 
only thing little about its true beneficiaries is their shame. 
Plaintiffs and defendants are merely a means to an end for the trial 
lawyers, who get fat off the pain of one group or the hard work of the 
other.
  The time for reform is now, Mr. Speaker, and this week, the House 
will continue its long-term strategy of taking back America's legal 
system from the ``Lords of the Ambulance Chase.''
  Today we will take up four bills to rein in lawsuit abuse. We will 
pass bills specifically protecting interscholastic sports organizations 
from lawsuits concerning their athletic rules; protecting volunteer 
firefighters from lawsuits that discourage generous Americans from 
donating equipment to them; and protecting volunteer pilots who come to 
the aid of their communities in times of crisis. And more 
comprehensively, Mr. Speaker, we will take up legislation presented by 
the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith), the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, 
which will impose mandatory penalties on those who file frivolous 
lawsuits.
  This bill will also prevent clever lawyers from shopping around for 
favorable judges and venues wholly unrelated to the case, it will 
remove the ``free pass'' provisions in the Federal Rules of Civil 
Procedure that many lawyers hide behind once their claim is exposed as 
a farce, and it will better hold lawyers accountable for their behavior 
during the discovery process.
  In short, Mr. Speaker, these bills together will further help take 
back the judicial system for legitimate plaintiffs, real defendants, 
principled lawyers who serve the ideals of their honorable profession, 
our national economic health, and, finally, for justice itself.

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