House Committee Hearing on CAFA Dominated by US Chamber of Commerce

I wanted to post a quick blurb about my testimony yesterday before the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice of the House Judiciary Committee in the hearing on The State of Class Actions Ten Years After the Class Action Fairness Act.

Here is the Prepared Statement I submitted 48 hours in advance of the hearing.

Not surprisingly given Republicans' control of the House, of the four witnesses testifying at the hearing, I was the only one offered by the Democrats.  The others were representing the US Chamber, DRI-the Voice of the Defense Bar, and Skadden Arps.

Continuing the proud tradition of "tort reformers" in spinning corporations' huge legal victories as tragic defeats, one would have never known that Wal-Mart v. Dukes, AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, and American Express v. Italian Colors (among many other corporate victories in the Supreme Court, the Advisory Committee, and state legislatures) had ever happened.  Instead, listening to the Republican-sponsored witnesses and members of the Committee and Subcommittee, it seemed instead that democracy itself, and even the world economy, were threatened by legions of liberal federal judges granting class certifications in cases in which no class members had been injured.  (Yes, the new urban myth of corporate interests is the so-called "no injury" class.)

As a former litigator, it was agony sitting there and not being able to object ("Mischaracterizes the evidence!"  "Assumes facts not in evidence!" "Irrelevant!") to some of the things coming out of people's mouths.  

It was also depressing to calculate how much I would have earned at the going hourly rate of an attorney with my background and experience in an urban market IF ANYONE HAD BEEN PAYING ME -- which of course, no one was.  (My dear law school, St. Thomas, reimbursed my measly travel expenses.)

Somehow, I doubt that the other three witnesses were appearing pro bono.

But someone has to stand up for rights of injured, cheated, and discriminated-against Americans and the plaintiffs' lawyers who represent them.  I am honored to have tried my best to do so.