[Dems2008] Re: If you care about the Courts

In 2005, state court "shopping" was already pretty much a thing of
the past. I live in a state where that argument was used to usher in
tort reform, and I've seen first hand what a travesty and a joke it
is, and how it goes against the rights of the average citizen to seek
justice from a jury of their peers. The jury shopping you speak of
was why the corporate lawyers used Mississippi as pretty much their
case study for tort reform, because African-American jurors were seen
as too plaintiff friendly and anti corporation, and that's why we
were on the bottom of the barrel and businesses wouldn't come here,
yada yada. Well we got tort reform and Haley Barbour and we're still
on the bottom and people are living in toxic FEMA trailers after the
insurance policies they held for years wouldn't pay what they owed
them, so don't even go there with me. But, perhaps I'm too
uneducated for you and Obama.

--- In Dems2008@yahoogroups.com, "citation502" <citation502@...>
wrote:
>
>
> I do.
>
> As one favorably disposed toward plaintiffs in class action
lawsuits,
> and favorably disposed toward the trial bar, I commended that
> legislation at the time; it's chief consequences were (i) to expand
> diversity jurisdiction over class actions (and thus limit some
> too-shrewd state-court forum shopping that was going on) AND to
provide
> for greater court supervision over so-called "coupon settlements,"
where
> members of the class would receive a "coupon" as part of the
settlement,
> but the attorneys' fees in the class action settlement were
nonetheless
> overstated.
>
> All in all, I thought it was a good piece of legislation, and,
while I
> did not know that Obama supported it then, I laud that vote now.
>
> Again, I have no patience or sympathy with the so-called "tort
reform"
> lunies in the Republican Party and business community, but THIS
> PARTICULAR piece of legislation was a PLUS in the often-absued class
> action arena. Class actions are too often just a way either to
reward
> lawyers for work that bestows little benefit on the class members
and/or
> a way to extort money from companies on the thinnest of reeds.
>
> P..S I vehemently oppose, and have always opposed, teh GOP's
favorite
> tack in this arena, namely, CAPPING awards to medical malpractice
> plaintiffs. I've written extensively on that; it's beyond the
scope of
> this group.
>
>
> --- In Dems2008@yahoogroups.com, "isabelle_ms" <isabelle_ms@> wrote:
> >
> > In February 2005, Barack Obama voted against Clinton, Kerry and
> > Kennedy and with the republicans to "amend the procedures that
apply
> > to consideration of interstate class actions to assure fairer
outcomes
> > for class members and defendants". Since my major issue is as I've
> > said ad nauseum, the courts, he's no different from the
republicans.
> >
>

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