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Speaker 1: Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring

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Speaker 1: legal issues in the news. And The Bloomberg Law Brief

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Speaker 1: is brought to you by American Arbitration Association, International Trade

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Speaker 1: or Business Dispute Resolve Faster with the International Center for

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Speaker 1: a Dispute Resolution, the leader in alternative dispute resolution around

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Speaker 1: the world. I see dr dot org. Today, Bloomberg LA

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Speaker 1: host Juven Grosso and Michael Best discuss three bills currently

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Speaker 1: making their way through the House which aims to protect

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Speaker 1: business interests by restricting class action lawsuits. They speak with

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Speaker 1: Paul Barrett, an editor for Bloomberg Business Week. Paul, how

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Speaker 1: will these bills make it harder to bring class actions?

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Speaker 1: Chairman good Lat's bill, which is the one that directly

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Speaker 1: addresses class actions, has a whole series of provisions, no

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Speaker 1: one of which would would spell the end of class actions,

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Speaker 1: but in combination, they would make it much more difficult

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Speaker 1: for plaintiffs lawyers to bring these cases. For example, uh,

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Speaker 1: there's a provision in the bill that requires that a

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Speaker 1: lead the fees for the plaintiff's lawyer be a percentage

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Speaker 1: of only of the money that has actually gone to

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Speaker 1: the alleged victims in the case, so that if the

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Speaker 1: remedies sought by the class action was just a change

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Speaker 1: in corporate behavior, that might mean that the that the

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Speaker 1: plaintiffs layers would not be entitled to any damages, and

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Speaker 1: that in turn, obviously would be a huge deterrent to

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Speaker 1: the bringing of those kinds of lawsuits. Well, there's also

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Speaker 1: there are also provisions to prevent um firms from doing

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Speaker 1: multiple representations and multiple suits of the same plaintiffs. What's

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Speaker 1: that all about. Yeah, Well, actually that provision was taken

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Speaker 1: out of the bill at the very very last second

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Speaker 1: because it was attracting a lot of attention, so that

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Speaker 1: there was a provision originally in the bill that basically

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Speaker 1: would have made it very difficult for the experienced securities

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Speaker 1: class action law firms that bring uh cases of that

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Speaker 1: securities fraud cases and frequently represent the same institutional investors

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Speaker 1: over and over. It would have made it very difficult

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Speaker 1: for them to do business. But good lad actually had

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Speaker 1: the bill amended it literally on the floor at the

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Speaker 1: last minute, and that provision is now out. So Paul,

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Speaker 1: what are the chances that this will pass not just

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Speaker 1: the House but the Senate. Well, these bills are passing

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Speaker 1: the House, and that's as expected. They face a much

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Speaker 1: tougher set of obstacles in the Senate, where the Republicans

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Speaker 1: have only a fifty two to forty eight advantage, which

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Speaker 1: means that under Senate rules, to avoid a filibuster they

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Speaker 1: need to find eight Democrats to go along with them.

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Speaker 1: Now they have a strategy for that. They're going to

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Speaker 1: target uh Democrats from red states who are up for

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Speaker 1: re election in eighteen and hope that they can peel

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Speaker 1: away a few of those votes. That's Paul Barrett, an

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Speaker 1: editor for Bloomberg Business Week, speaking with the Bloomberg Law

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Speaker 1: host joom Brasso and Michael Best. You can listen to

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm Wall Street Time here

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Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio Now. Among the top legal stories from

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law, Ford, BMW and Nissan are going to Kunta

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Speaker 1: Corporation over those exploding air bags. The automakers want to

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Speaker 1: conta to cover losses they incurred because of the faulty

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Speaker 1: air bag inflators that have been linked to seventeen deaths.

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Speaker 1: The suit claims to Kana withheld information about the inflators.

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Speaker 1: The Kanda has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the

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Speaker 1: US and may file for bankruptcy as part of a restructuring.

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Speaker 1: South Korea's austened president Bank Jun Hey has new problems

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Speaker 1: since the country's highest court removed her from office last week.

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Speaker 1: She's lost her presidential immunity. That means Bach may have

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Speaker 1: to defend herself against criminal charges that she pressured top

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Speaker 1: business executives into donating millions of dollars to foundations run

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Speaker 1: by a close friend. One of the most notorious terrorists

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Speaker 1: from the seventies goes on trial today in Paris. The

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Speaker 1: Venezuela man known as Carlos the Jackal is already serving

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Speaker 1: a life sentence for murders and attacks on behalf of

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Speaker 1: the Palestinians or the Communist Revolution. Now he faces charges

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventy four grenade attack in Paris that

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Speaker 1: killed two people. And that's this morning. Is Bloomberg Law Brief.

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Speaker 1: You can find more illegal news at Bloomberg Law dot

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Speaker 1: com and Bloomberg b NA dot com. Attorneys will find

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Speaker 1: exceptional legal research and business development tools there as well.

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Speaker 1: Visit Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg b NA dot

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Speaker 1: com for more information.