here's the bill: https://judiciary.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PT_002_xml.pdf
Donald Trump may have promised to put America first, but "Americans" apparently take a back seat to corporate interests. Trump's GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill are pushing a bill aimed at protecting companies from American consumers by limiting class-action lawsuits that target defective products and marketing scams alike. For instance, all those students who were defrauded by Trump University wouldn’t have been able to bring their case if the bill had been law. Or if your house was made from highly toxic imported Chinese drywall—as many in the South were following a series of destructive hurricanes—you'd be on your own. The legislation, which was approved by the House Judiciary Committee last month, would tip the legal landscape in favor of large corporations. Cora Lewis writes:
In recent years, companies have increasingly relied on legal fine print to avoid the lawsuits, inserting language into contracts requiring disputes to be settled by private arbitrators, not the courts. In the final years of the Obama administration, regulators moved to limit those arbitration clauses, proposing rules that ban them from student loan agreements and some financial services.
But some in Congress are now moving in the other direction, drafting a law that would make it harder to launch class-action lawsuits in the first place. [...]
The law, if passed, “will eviscerate class actions, which are often the only avenue for Americans to hold corporations accountable if they are victims of widespread illegal behavior,” wrote Linda Lipsen, CEO of the American Association for Justice, a national plaintiff lawyer association.
“If this bill becomes law, it will deny justice to Americans who suffer from financial fraud and deceptive scams, massive civil and human rights violations, or unsafe products and toxic workplaces that cause horrific injuries and deaths.”
Though the bill never had a hearing, House Republicans intended to ram through a vote later this week. That timeline may have been pushed back to early next week.
Still missing is the voice of the guy who won the 2016 presidential election by promising voters that he would put their interests above all else.
“The President has continued to be overwhelmingly silent on this issue," said Paul Bland of the legal group Public Justice. "If I were a corporate-side lobbyist, I would be deeply concerned that this will turn out to be an issue like trade, for example, where the President does not follow lockstep with traditional Republican lobbyists and donors."
Bland sees the bill as an "enormous betrayal" of the promises Trump made on the campaign trail. But if Trump were to sign legislation that would have specifically limited his liability on his Trump University scam, we'll know exactly who he's looking out for. “America first” may not have meant “Americans first” at all.
GOP pushes bill inhibiting Americans from filing class-action lawsuits against large corporations
the rape of america continues? good luck defeating a corporations legal team by your lonesome.
Donald Trump may have promised to put America first, but "Americans" apparently take a back seat to corporate interests. Trump's GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill are pushing a bill aimed at protecting companies from American consumers by limiting class-action lawsuits that target defective products and marketing scams alike. For instance, all those students who were defrauded by Trump University wouldn’t have been able to bring their case if the bill had been law. Or if your house was made from highly toxic imported Chinese drywall—as many in the South were following a series of destructive hurricanes—you'd be on your own. The legislation, which was approved by the House Judiciary Committee last month, would tip the legal landscape in favor of large corporations. Cora Lewis writes:
In recent years, companies have increasingly relied on legal fine print to avoid the lawsuits, inserting language into contracts requiring disputes to be settled by private arbitrators, not the courts. In the final years of the Obama administration, regulators moved to limit those arbitration clauses, proposing rules that ban them from student loan agreements and some financial services.
But some in Congress are now moving in the other direction, drafting a law that would make it harder to launch class-action lawsuits in the first place. [...]
The law, if passed, “will eviscerate class actions, which are often the only avenue for Americans to hold corporations accountable if they are victims of widespread illegal behavior,” wrote Linda Lipsen, CEO of the American Association for Justice, a national plaintiff lawyer association.
“If this bill becomes law, it will deny justice to Americans who suffer from financial fraud and deceptive scams, massive civil and human rights violations, or unsafe products and toxic workplaces that cause horrific injuries and deaths.”
Though the bill never had a hearing, House Republicans intended to ram through a vote later this week. That timeline may have been pushed back to early next week.
Still missing is the voice of the guy who won the 2016 presidential election by promising voters that he would put their interests above all else.
“The President has continued to be overwhelmingly silent on this issue," said Paul Bland of the legal group Public Justice. "If I were a corporate-side lobbyist, I would be deeply concerned that this will turn out to be an issue like trade, for example, where the President does not follow lockstep with traditional Republican lobbyists and donors."
Bland sees the bill as an "enormous betrayal" of the promises Trump made on the campaign trail. But if Trump were to sign legislation that would have specifically limited his liability on his Trump University scam, we'll know exactly who he's looking out for. “America first” may not have meant “Americans first” at all.
GOP pushes bill inhibiting Americans from filing class-action lawsuits against large corporations
the rape of america continues? good luck defeating a corporations legal team by your lonesome.
