WASHINGTON-Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced legislation that could curb the kinds of consumer and health class-action suits brought against the wireless industry in recent years.
“In the 109th Congress we once again have the opportunity to stop class-action lawyers from being able to snag millions of dollars while class-action members receive a worthless coupon or even nothing,” said Grassley. “Many class actions are just frivolous lawsuits filed by crafty lawyers who want to make a quick buck and do little or nothing for the consumers these cases are allegedly supposed to help. We need to put an end to the frivolous litigation tax that everyone ends up paying.”
Grassley is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, but his Class Action Fairness bill would be handled by the Judiciary Committee. The class-action bill, part of a broader Republican tort reform campaign and supported by the Bush administration, is a high priority for the GOP congressional leadership in 2005.
The measure would create federal jurisdiction over class actions in which the aggregate amount in controversy exceeds $5 million and any member of a plaintiff class is a citizen of a different state from any defendant. Under those provisions alone, many past and present wireless suits would be barred from state courts.
While the bill would steer many suits to federal court, it would not completely prevent state class-action litigation.
One provision keeps local controversies in state court and allows removal of class actions that are truly interstate in character to federal court. Under this provision, cases would stay in state court if the plaintiffs have sued at least one in-state defendant whose conduct forms a significant basis of their claims, if the principal injuries occurred in the state where the suit is brought, and if no class action has been filed alleging the same claims against any of the defendants in the last three years.
Consumer groups and trial lawyers oppose the legislation.
