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ATRA APPLAUDS SENATE MOVE ON
CLASS ACTION LEGISLATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30th, 2000
WASHINGTON, D.C. - American Tort Reform Association
President Sherman Joyce today praised the Senate Judiciary
Committee's approval of S.353, the Class Action Fairness
Act.
"We're pleased to see this bill moving ahead in the
Senate," Joyce said of the Committee's action Thursday to
report the bill out of committee. "We hope the full Senate
acts quickly to approve the measure."
"Class action lawsuits have become yet another tool for
predatory plaintiffs' lawyers to use in their quest for higher
fees. Too often class actions are used to extort huge
settlements from everything from computer companies to car
manufacturers that send millions of dollars to lawyers and
pennies to consumers."
Joyce termed the Interstate Class Action Fairness Act a
modest and common sense proposal that will allow the massive,
multi-state claims to be heard in their proper jurisdiction -
federal court.
Similar legislation, H.R. 1875, the Interstate Class Action
Jurisdiction Act, introduced by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-VA,
Rick Boucher, D-VA, Jim Moran, D-VA, and Ed Bryant, R-TN, has
already passed in the House.
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ATRA, founded in 1986, is a
broad-based, bipartisan coalition of more than 300 businesses,
corporations, municipalities, associations, and professional
firms who support civil justice reform with the goal of
ensuring fairness, balance and predictability in America's
legal system. | 
