February 18, 2005
A Win! (I Think)
We're all jawing about Social Security and permanent tax cuts, but we should take a moment to celebrate a win.
Bush Signs Bill Curbing Class-Action SuitsWASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday signed a bill that he says will curtail multimillion-dollar class action lawsuits against companies and "marks a critical step toward ending the lawsuit culture in our country."
This was an important part of the second term agenda and those of us rooting for the President should be glad for the win.
My sole concern is how happy I am about an anti-Federalist measure. Class action suits are national in scope and clearly belong in Federal court. I am not keen on the good folks of Beaverditch, Mississippi shutting down a major pharmaceutical firm.
And yet, celebrating the motion of authority from state to federal seems importune.
How do we file a class-action lawsuit against judgement-friendly state judges who have cost all Americans billions of dollars in inflated liability costs? I wouldn't even care if we didn't collect our damages due, so long as we put those judges out of business.
The problem with this band-aid measure is that, eventually, such judges will be found in the federal courts as well.
Posted by: johngalt at February 18, 2005 3:45 PMTwo advantages:
1) You can't "shop" for sympathetic judges in the Federal court system. The Trial Bar knew what counties tended to have sympathetic judges and juries.
2) You're hoping that the jury pool improves. Again, the jurisdiction shoppers knew how to find extremely poor counties with easier played jurors.
Posted by: jk at February 18, 2005 4:20 PMThe Trial Bar also knows which Federal Judicial District has sympathetic judges and juries - the Ninth Circuit.
Don't misunderestimate me, I'm all for this change. I just think it's a stopgap measure, analogous to Reagan's '83 Social Security "Reform."
Posted by: johngalt at February 21, 2005 2:39 PM | What do you think? [3]