Thank you all for being here.
This week has been a long time coming. In fact years in coming. Senator Kohl and I first joined forces during the 105th Congress. We wanted to address the egregious problem we were seeing in the class action system.
This bill has gone through many changes since that first draft in 1998. At that time I thought we had a pretty good bill. But, as you've heard me say, you can't get a bill through the United States Senate that doesn't have a good deal of bipartisan support.
We've worked in good faith to address the concerns of members of the Senate – on both sides of the aisle. Both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have held numerous hearings. I think we can safely say that this bill has been thoroughly thought out.
In order to move the bill forward we listened to issues that were raised. We made modifications where we could.
The end result still addresses some of the more egregious abuses with the class action system. Yet, it preserves class action lawsuits as an important tool which brings representation to the unrepresented.
Many of these class action lawsuits are frivolous. The frivolous lawsuits that are plaguing the system are a tremendous drag on the economy. Last month we learned that small businesses not only create most of the jobs in America, but they also pay most of the liability costs, too. Common sense tells me that a small business would be better off creating jobs with the money that instead is being doled out for runaway frivolous litigation.
Congress needs to help small businesses thrive, not bog them down with litigation costs, and certainly not help greedy lawyers line their pockets with millions.
We've all heard stories about abuses in the class action system — the settlement where the consumer gets a $1 off coupon while the lawyer sails away on his yacht with millions. I don't think anybody in this room can honestly tell me that this is the right thing to do.
Later during this press conference, you'll hear three remarkable women tell their stories about why they think there is a need for reform in the class action system. I think their stories will help you see what those of us up here see. They understand that class actions are supposed to be brought to help the class members, not the lawyers. I appreciate them being here to give us perspective.
The Senate has before it a delicate compromise that has the support of a filibuster proof majority of the Senate. Now should be the time to move this bipartisan bill forward.