Speaker 1: Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring
Speaker 1: legal issues in the news. And The Bloomberg Law Brief
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Speaker 1: host Juven Grosso and Michael Best discuss three bills currently
Speaker 1: making their way through the House which aims to protect
Speaker 1: business interests by restricting class action lawsuits. They speak with
Speaker 1: Paul Barrett, an editor for Bloomberg Business Week. Paul, how
Speaker 1: will these bills make it harder to bring class actions?
Speaker 1: Chairman good Lat's bill, which is the one that directly
Speaker 1: addresses class actions, has a whole series of provisions, no
Speaker 1: one of which would would spell the end of class actions,
Speaker 1: but in combination, they would make it much more difficult
Speaker 1: for plaintiffs lawyers to bring these cases. For example, uh,
Speaker 1: there's a provision in the bill that requires that a
Speaker 1: lead the fees for the plaintiff's lawyer be a percentage
Speaker 1: of only of the money that has actually gone to
Speaker 1: the alleged victims in the case, so that if the
Speaker 1: remedies sought by the class action was just a change
Speaker 1: in corporate behavior, that might mean that the that the
Speaker 1: plaintiffs layers would not be entitled to any damages, and
Speaker 1: that in turn, obviously would be a huge deterrent to
Speaker 1: the bringing of those kinds of lawsuits. Well, there's also
Speaker 1: there are also provisions to prevent um firms from doing
Speaker 1: multiple representations and multiple suits of the same plaintiffs. What's
Speaker 1: that all about. Yeah, Well, actually that provision was taken
Speaker 1: out of the bill at the very very last second
Speaker 1: because it was attracting a lot of attention, so that
Speaker 1: there was a provision originally in the bill that basically
Speaker 1: would have made it very difficult for the experienced securities
Speaker 1: class action law firms that bring uh cases of that
Speaker 1: securities fraud cases and frequently represent the same institutional investors
Speaker 1: over and over. It would have made it very difficult
Speaker 1: for them to do business. But good lad actually had
Speaker 1: the bill amended it literally on the floor at the
Speaker 1: last minute, and that provision is now out. So Paul,
Speaker 1: what are the chances that this will pass not just
Speaker 1: the House but the Senate. Well, these bills are passing
Speaker 1: the House, and that's as expected. They face a much
Speaker 1: tougher set of obstacles in the Senate, where the Republicans
Speaker 1: have only a fifty two to forty eight advantage, which
Speaker 1: means that under Senate rules, to avoid a filibuster they
Speaker 1: need to find eight Democrats to go along with them.
Speaker 1: Now they have a strategy for that. They're going to
Speaker 1: target uh Democrats from red states who are up for
Speaker 1: re election in eighteen and hope that they can peel
Speaker 1: away a few of those votes. That's Paul Barrett, an
Speaker 1: editor for Bloomberg Business Week, speaking with the Bloomberg Law
Speaker 1: host joom Brasso and Michael Best. You can listen to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm Wall Street Time here
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio Now. Among the top legal stories from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law, Ford, BMW and Nissan are going to Kunta
Speaker 1: Corporation over those exploding air bags. The automakers want to
Speaker 1: conta to cover losses they incurred because of the faulty
Speaker 1: air bag inflators that have been linked to seventeen deaths.
Speaker 1: The suit claims to Kana withheld information about the inflators.
Speaker 1: The Kanda has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the
Speaker 1: US and may file for bankruptcy as part of a restructuring.
Speaker 1: South Korea's austened president Bank Jun Hey has new problems
Speaker 1: since the country's highest court removed her from office last week.
Speaker 1: She's lost her presidential immunity. That means Bach may have
Speaker 1: to defend herself against criminal charges that she pressured top
Speaker 1: business executives into donating millions of dollars to foundations run
Speaker 1: by a close friend. One of the most notorious terrorists
Speaker 1: from the seventies goes on trial today in Paris. The
Speaker 1: Venezuela man known as Carlos the Jackal is already serving
Speaker 1: a life sentence for murders and attacks on behalf of
Speaker 1: the Palestinians or the Communist Revolution. Now he faces charges
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventy four grenade attack in Paris that
Speaker 1: killed two people. And that's this morning. Is Bloomberg Law Brief.
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