Class Action Fairness Act in Senate Week of June 21st.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate is expected to take up the Class Action Fairness Act (S. 2062) as soon as it finishes the Department of Defense Reauthorization Bill during the week of June 21st.

The Class Action Fairness Act, which was first introduced in 1998, is aimed at curbing class action lawsuit abuses in state courts that result from rampant venue shopping of large national class action lawsuits in a few select jurisdictions around the country. Most of the abuse involves state court-approved settlements of national class action lawsuits that provide coupons or something else of little or no value for the class members and huge legal fees for the attorneys.

Last November, a bipartisan group of Senators negotiated a compromise that ensures that truly local class action lawsuits remain in state courts and that legal fees in coupon settlements be determined as a percentage of the actual coupons redeemed or the number of hours the lawyers worked. As a result of that compromise, 62 Senators have indicated support for the legislation. Eighty-eight newspaper editorials have been written in support of the Class Action Fairness Act, including four from the Washington Post.

The class action legislation DOES NOT limit anyone's right to sue in a class action lawsuit and DOES NOT include any caps on damages or limits on legal fees.

Information about the bill can be found at http://www.legalreformnow.com/pdfs/ClassAct.pdf.

For more information please contact Joan Gartlan, [phone].

The Class Action Fairness Coalition is a group of companies and business organizations dedicated to making America's class-action lawsuit system simpler, fairer and faster.