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| Wilson Supports Class Action Reform |
February 17, 2005 |
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Washington, DC - Congresswoman Heather Wilson today voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 which passed the House by a vote of 222-187, and will be sent to President to be signed into law.
“It’s important to protect the legal rights of all citizens while ensuring that court awards and settlements go to those who are wrongfully injured rather than to a few wealthy trial lawyers,” Wilson said. “Class action reform will allow businesses and their employees to go back to the business of growing our economy and creating jobs.”
The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005
· Creates a consumer class action bill of rights.
· Allows the federal courts to try a greater number of large class action law suits.
The bill defines large class action law suits. Qualifying lawsuits are those with 100 plaintiffs or more, arising out of state law where the parties come from diverse states.
The bill improves the damages requirement. Current law requires that each plaintiff have suffered $75,000 in damages, but the bill eliminates the requirement of individual damages of $75,000, as long as the damages suffered by the class as a whole is $5 million or more.
The bill eases the diversity requirement. Current law has a diversity requirement that all of the plaintiffs must be citizens residing in different states than all of the defendants before a state lawsuit may be filed in or removed to federal court.
The bill creates a consumer class action bill of rights. This contains key safeguards that provide for judicial scrutiny of coupon and other noncash settlements, protect against a proposed settlement that would result in a net loss to a class member, protect against discrimination based upon geographic location, and prohibit a class representative receiving a greater share of the award.
The bill calls for plain English. In an important addition, the legislation includes within its bill of rights explicit provisions for "plain English" settlement notices and settlement notifications.
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