My Evil Twin and Tort Reform
Yesterday, the Senate approved a maesure to limit the ability of people to file class-action lawsuits against companies.
Now, I don't know much about this kind of stuff, so I asked my evil twin what this means.
Me: Are class-action lawsuits good or bad?
My Evil Twin: Bad for you, good for big businesses. Ha-Ha! You lose.
Me: How are they going to limit them?
My Evil Twin: State courts won't be able to hear some of these cases, forcing them to Federal Courts. And the Federal Courts don't want to get involved with state laws usually, so the cases won't get heard.
Me: That sounds kind of mean, why is the Bush Administration so mean?
My Evil Twin: Well, it all goes back to money and greed. Where do you think the Gee oh Pee gets most of it's money?
Me: um, businesses and rich people?
My Evil Twin: Good Answer!!! And where do you think the Democrats get most of thier money from?
Me: um, trial lawyers, and people that aren't as rich?
My Evil Twin: You're pretty smart, but not as smart as me, little girl. With this measure, more money will go to business and rich people and less to lawyers and not-so-rich people, thus more cash will be funnelled to Republican politicians and less to Democratic politicians. Now run along and be a good little girl and remember to be very, very scared of terrorists, social programs and gay people.
Now, I don't know much about this kind of stuff, so I asked my evil twin what this means.
Me: Are class-action lawsuits good or bad?
My Evil Twin: Bad for you, good for big businesses. Ha-Ha! You lose.
Me: How are they going to limit them?
My Evil Twin: State courts won't be able to hear some of these cases, forcing them to Federal Courts. And the Federal Courts don't want to get involved with state laws usually, so the cases won't get heard.
Me: That sounds kind of mean, why is the Bush Administration so mean?
My Evil Twin: Well, it all goes back to money and greed. Where do you think the Gee oh Pee gets most of it's money?
Me: um, businesses and rich people?
My Evil Twin: Good Answer!!! And where do you think the Democrats get most of thier money from?
Me: um, trial lawyers, and people that aren't as rich?
My Evil Twin: You're pretty smart, but not as smart as me, little girl. With this measure, more money will go to business and rich people and less to lawyers and not-so-rich people, thus more cash will be funnelled to Republican politicians and less to Democratic politicians. Now run along and be a good little girl and remember to be very, very scared of terrorists, social programs and gay people.
posted by cookie christine @ 2/11/2005
3 Comments:
At February 11, 2005,
Anonymous said…
Those cases may get heard, but the thing about Federal courts is that, after having Republican presidents for sixteen out of the last twenty four years, the Federal bench is LOADED with conservatice, pro-corporation, anti-plaintiff judges.
Which is funny, when you consider the non-stop bitching from the conservatives about "activist" liberal judges...
There aren't ANY. But that's another topic.
Getting into court is one thing, but once you're there, you rely on judges for dozens of rulings--on the law, on evidence, on jury instructions.
And within the Federal system, judges have the discretion of transferring cases to different venues--which state court judges don't.
You can file a class action case in Federal court in California and the Federal judge can transfer it to Deleware--which a state court judge can't do.
So those cases will get heard, but they'll get heard on the MOST unfriendly terms a plaintiff could ask for.
Ricky Zee
At February 12, 2005,
cookie christine said…
Ricky,
You're smart. How did you get to be so smart?
At February 13, 2005,
Anonymous said…
Oh, I was bored and I read a whole bunch. You know how it is...
Ricky Zee
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