Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued the overriding purpose of the bill is to make it virtually impossible for class-action lawsuits to be brought by groups of people who have been injured by a consumer rip-off, pharmaceutical drug mistake, faulty product design, sex discrimination or sexual harassment in the workplace, or lead and asbestos poisoning.
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) claimed the legislation is needed to curb overly broad class-action lawsuits that hurt companies and force consumers into lawsuits they don’t want to be in.
“The purpose of a class action is to provide a fair means of evaluating similar meritorious claims, not to provide a way for lawyers to artificially inflate this size of a class to extort a larger settlement fee for themselves, siphoning money away from those actually injured and increasing prices for everyone.”
But Raskin pushed back, accusing Republicans of trying to shield corporate wrongdoers by making it more difficult for victims to band together.
“This doesn’t formally abolish the class-action mechanism,” he said. “It’s not the guillotine, but it’s a straight jacket.”
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