Frist to Delay Action on Lawsuits Bill

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist decided Tuesday to wait until later to bring up a GOP bill that would curb the class-action lawsuits they say are bankrupting American businesses.

Frist, R-Tenn, said the decision was made after "some requests from a number of Democratic senators."

Frist had wanted to skip over the Defense Department authorization bill to get to the class action bill on Tuesday. Several Democrats had agreed to cross party lines to give Republicans the 60 votes they needed to get a filibuster-proof majority on the legislation.

But those same Democrats had said they would not vote to skip over the defense bill. Frist said he hopes the Senate will now go to the class action bill whenever the defense bill is completed.

more.............

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-class-action-lawsuits,0,6116083.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Trillo]

1. Another way to reduce class-action lawsuits against businesses:

STOP breaking the laws and hurting people.

[aquart]

2. I wish I could agree with you.

Because I am against the so-called "tort reform."

But we got sued because a thief got into our building and injured himself on our freight elevator. Swear to god. We were legal. He was not. We got taken.

This is the kind of egregious idiocy that is being used as the excuse to prevent righteous lawsuits as well. I don't know how you stop one without stopping the other, and I don't believe our legislators are making the smallest effort to solve the problem.

[pw]

4. Stopping frivolous lawsuits

is more of a matter for judges and lawyers. The provisions for sanctioning lawyers who bring baseless suits are already in the court rules, they're just generally not used.

[Trillo]

7. Were you insured?

I'm not an attorney. Now, back to the question of insurance: If you were, you're not really out anything except a little inconvenience and a deductible. Perhaps your premium was raised some. In this case it seems more of an ego issue that you perceive yourself to be legal but were punished; the actual harm done to you or your business directly is negligible.


1) If you weren't insured, there may have been deeper issues at work--forces showing you the "need" to be insured.
2) If you were insured, similar forces can be at work to show The People the need to give up the right to hold wrongdoers responsible because insurance is perceived as too expensive to a minority business class.

My largest point is that there's a seesaw effect between 1 and 2 that can feed off each other; corruption can exist at many different levels, and to some degree, these levels can work in concert with each other. It's not necessarily limited to just attorneys trolling for business. The corruption can be "systemic."


Right now, I'm being faced with the need to collect a measly $5.00 from a wholesaler who sold a product of ours and who say they're going to pay, they just never get around to writing and sending the check: they're located in another state, and they terminated their relationship with a new predatory pricing scheme and failed to grant a termination period as the existing contract stipulated.

This amount of money they owe is not worth even a small claims court filing fee, or the travel to the other state. However, this same wholesaler has apparently failed to pay a number of others, as well as us.

What should I do? Write to my representative and senator that I think that all businesses, large and small, should be rewarded by making class-action justice illegal?

[TheWizardOfMudd]

11. You should sue them, on principle

So they have to pay your attorney fees and costs! Heh. ;)

Edit: Then, maybe they'll start writing those $5 checks when they are supposed to.

Its called "righting a wrong."

[PaDUer]

3. And stop

paying off the FDA!

[BayCityProgressive]

5. I am a law student

and there needs to be reform in the law business...IT IS BUSINESS. Frivilous suits cost small businesses tons of money they could be using to expand and create more jobs. If we want caps and regulations on doctors, insurance companies, oil companies ect....why not law reform too? Now I know a lot fo the GOPs "reform" is total crap..but something needs to be done.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

6. Tort Reformers

Tort reform advocates scream about frivolous lawsuits but they never have any good examples of frivolous lawsuits to offer or even statistics on the number of frivolous lawsuits filed.

Additionally, those that advocate caps on medical malpractice damages never reveal doctors' salaries or the amount of profit made by medical malpractice carriers. How can one make an informed decision on whether or not reform is needed without this evidence?

The facts are that frivolous lawsuits get dismissed or never survive summary judgment, and that caps on damages is just a scheme for insurance companies to make more profit at the expense of the average Americans who seek justice in court.

[PaDUer]

8. Where are you a law student?

Frivolous law suits get dismissed. The insurance companies are screwing the people over, and there's too many doctors screwing up. They've been scaring people into believing they won't have a doctor, but what good is having a doctor when a doctor screws up? Yet, the doctor still submits their HIGH bills to the patient or insurance company. They need to be held accountable, and if they're incompetent, they should have their licenses revoked. 1-2-3 strikes, they're OUT. They scare their staff into thinking they'll be without a job also. I guess you don't know anyone who's life has been screwed over by incompetent doctors, and sometimes, doctors who have had too much to drink!

[TheWizardOfMudd]

10. True That!

In Oklahoma, if a disciplinary proceeding is brought against an attorney, the punishment is swift, just and made a part of the public record in the form of a Supreme Court published opinion.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I am not aware of an official state publication, detailing a doctor's malpractice and identifying him or her by name, that is sent to every doctor in a state and available to the public.

Also, in my state, the republican noise machine is calling for workers' comp reform and running television and radio ads claiming that all of the money paid out in the WC system is going to the trial lawyers. The propaganda promulgated is completely false.

On the contrary, in a typical herniated disc/back surgery case, the medical industry gets in the neighborhood of at least twenty thousand dollars, the injured worker gets in the neighborhood of twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars, and the attorney gets in the neighborhood of four or five thousand dollars, which is a contingency fee.

Wise up, folks. In real terms, tort reform means more profit for insurance companies at the expense of ordinary, hard working people and their attorneys. And, believe me, if workers' comp claimants are unrepresented in a state where the judges are appointed by republican governors (as in my state, recently), we're all FUCKED.

[saigon68]

12. I don't agree with you

Without aggressive Products litigation there would still be no seat belts in Cars. Corporations don't care diddly squat about safety, they only care about profits.

[dusty64]

9. Since when did he ever

honor a Democratic request. I guess a few members of the "opposition" party want to wait till after the elections before they further screw their constituents. When is the populist backlash gonna happen cause it can't happen too soon?