Speaker 1: Republicans have been trying to kill class actions and push
Speaker 1: tort reform bills for years. It's been a losing battle
Speaker 1: since the Class Action Fairness Act of two thousand five,
Speaker 1: co authored by GOP Congressman Rob Goodlat. Now good Lat,
Speaker 1: chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced the broadest
Speaker 1: of a series of bills designed to discourage class actions
Speaker 1: and make it harder to sue businesses joining us as
Speaker 1: Paul Barrett of Bloomberg business Week, who has written about
Speaker 1: this in an article entitled will the GOP finally crushed
Speaker 1: class actions? Paul? How will these bills make it harder
Speaker 1: to bring class actions? Chairman good Lat's bill, which is
Speaker 1: the one that directly addresses class actions, has a whole
Speaker 1: series of provisions, no one of which would would spell
Speaker 1: the end of class actions, but in combination, they would
Speaker 1: make it much more difficult for plaintiffs lawyers to bring
Speaker 1: these cases. For example, uh, there's a provision in the
Speaker 1: bill that requires that a legal fees for the plaintiff's
Speaker 1: lawyer be a percentage of only of the money that
Speaker 1: has actually gone to the alleged victims in the case,
Speaker 1: so that if the remedies sought by the class action
Speaker 1: was just a change in corporate behavior. That might mean
Speaker 1: that the that the plaintiffs lawyers would not be entitled
Speaker 1: to any damages, and that in turn, obviously would be
Speaker 1: a huge deterrent to the bringing of those kinds of lawsuits. Well,
Speaker 1: there's also there are also provisions to prevent UM firms
Speaker 1: from doing multiple representations and multiple suits of the same plaintiffs.
Speaker 1: What's that all about. Yeah, Well, actually, that provision which
Speaker 1: we wrote about in our article, which was in the
Speaker 1: bill as of late Wednesday, was was taken out of
Speaker 1: the bill at the very very last second because it
Speaker 1: was attracting a lot of attention, So that there was
Speaker 1: a provision originally in the bill that basically would have
Speaker 1: made it very difficult for the experienced securities class action
Speaker 1: law firms that bring UH cases of that UH securities
Speaker 1: fraud cases and frequently represent the same institutional investors over
Speaker 1: and over. It would have made it very difficult for
Speaker 1: them to do business. But good lad actually had the
Speaker 1: bill amended, it literally on the floor at the last minute,
Speaker 1: and that provision is now out. So, Paul, what are
Speaker 1: the chances that this will pass not just the House
Speaker 1: but the Senate. Well, these bills are passing the House,
Speaker 1: and that's as expected. They face a much tougher set
Speaker 1: of obstacles in the Senate, where the Republicans have only
Speaker 1: a fifty two to forty eight advantage, which means that
Speaker 1: under Senate rules, to avoid a filibuster, they need to
Speaker 1: find eight Democrats to go along with them. Now, they
Speaker 1: have a strategy for that. They're going to target UH,
Speaker 1: Democrats from red states who are up for re election
Speaker 1: in eighteen and hope that they can peel away a
Speaker 1: few of those votes. Well, that's an interesting strategy though, Paul,
Speaker 1: because you know, stopping people playeffs from from suing big corporations.
Speaker 1: How does that play out in terms of trying to
Speaker 1: get say, you know, white, middle class Trump voters in
Speaker 1: red states to vote against Democrats. Well, I think it
Speaker 1: is potentially challenging, and it's not obvious how that issue plays.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons why this kind of
Speaker 1: legislation generally, UM is very difficult for business interests to
Speaker 1: pass on the federal level because what your constituency UH
Speaker 1: is can be a little bit ambiguous. Businesses clearly want
Speaker 1: restrictions on civil litigation, but whether the little guy wants
Speaker 1: those restrictions is is far more ambiguous when you hear
Speaker 1: about class actions, Paul. Many people think about enormous fees
Speaker 1: for the plaintiff's lawyers involved. But class actions have also
Speaker 1: led to changes in industry practices. And recently there was
Speaker 1: the Trump University class action on behalf of six thousand students.
Speaker 1: So there are some class actions that do good as well. Um,
Speaker 1: if this does pass, will it be something that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump would sign, Well, certainly Republicans are speculating, um that
Speaker 1: the President Trump would sign such legislation. With President Obama
Speaker 1: in the White House, there was an almost certain veto
Speaker 1: for anything along these lines, um. But President Trump presents
Speaker 1: an ambiguous figure himself. He has been the target of
Speaker 1: of all kinds of civil litigation, as you mentioned, um,
Speaker 1: but he also has been a very aggressive plaintiff in
Speaker 1: a number of occasions, uh, during his business career. So
Speaker 1: he's both someone who gets who got sued a lot,
Speaker 1: and who himself filed a lot of lawsuits. So just quickly, Paul,
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you're reporting on this, and you've
Speaker 1: given us a sort of handicapping of it, but does
Speaker 1: it really look like this is the year this could
Speaker 1: go through the Senator? Is it going to be just
Speaker 1: too big a challenge for the Republicans? No, I think
Speaker 1: it's it's plausible. I think business interests that are enthusiastic
Speaker 1: about this are correctly, uh, calculating that this might be
Speaker 1: the year to actually push through a substantial amount of legislation. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a great article with a lot of information packed
Speaker 1: in it. That's Paul Barrett of Boomberg business Week, and
Speaker 1: the article is entitled will the GOP finally crushed class actions?
Speaker 1: Coming up on Bloomberg Law? Thanks so much for being here, Paul.
Speaker 1: Coming up on Bloomberg Law, we'll look at the Republican
Speaker 1: healthcare bill. What will it really mean? What are its
Speaker 1: chances of passing. We'll be talking to Harry Nelson. He's
Speaker 1: a partner at Nelson Harridman and he's the author of
Speaker 1: the book Obamacare to Trump Care, Why You Should Care