Class action suits to be heard in federal court

WASHINGTON -- Congress on Thursday passed legislation that would transfer most large, multi-state class-action lawsuits to federal court, fulfilling one of President Bush's second-term goals.\nThe aim of the bill, supporters said, was to protect businesses and stop lawyers from reaping huge profits by filing suits in carefully selected state courts.\nThe legislation, given final congressional approval by the House on a 279-149 vote, would ban state courts from hearing large multi-state class action lawsuits. Such courts have been known for issuing multimillion-dollar verdicts like they did against tobacco companies.\nBush said he looked forward to signing the legislation. He said it would "help protect people who are wrongfully harmed while reducing the frivolous lawsuits that clog our courts, hurt the economy, cost jobs and burden American businesses."\nAfter the bill becomes law, cases against corporations and businesses accused of wrongdoing against large groups of people will be heard by federal judges. Critics have said these jurists are not as amenable as are their state counterparts to these cases, which often involve millions of dollars.\nThe Senate passed the bill Feb. 10. Bush is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday.\nBush and other Republicans have been pushing for changes in the legal system for years. They argue that greedy lawyers have taken advantage of the state class action lawsuit system by filing frivolous lawsuits in certain state courts where they know they can win big dollar verdicts. Meanwhile, those lawyers' clients get only small sums or coupons giving them discounts for the products of the company they just sued, lawmakers said.\n"Frivolous lawsuits are clogging America's judicial system, endangering America's small businesses, jeopardizing jobs and driving up prices for consumers," said House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.\nMoving those cases to federal court will ensure that state judges will no longer "routinely approve settlements in which the lawyers receive large fees and the class members receive virtually nothing," he added.\nCompanies in response have had to cut back on their activities to defend those lawsuits and have had to raise prices on products to recoup their costs, Republicans said.\n"These out-of-control class action lawsuits are killing jobs, they're hurting small business people who can't afford to defend themselves and they're hurting consumers who have to pay more for products," said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla.\nDemocrats argued that the main goal of Republicans was to hurt trial lawyers who donate heavily to the Democratic Party and to help big business escape multimillion-dollar verdicts from state courts. "This bill is the Vioxx protection bill, it is the Wal-Mart protection bill, it is the Tyco protection bill and it is the Enron protection bill," said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.\nThey tried to scuttle the legislation by offering an amendment rewriting the bill and trying to force it back to committee, but Republicans voted those efforts down.\nThe legislation is "a payback to big business at the expense of consumers," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said.