Bill in Brief

In the Republican campaign to rein in enormous lawsuits, class action reform was the low-hanging fruit that lawmakers picked off first (medical malpractice and asbestos faced more opposition and ended up going nowhere).

A class action reform bill passed in 2005, S 5, would reduce lawsuit costs by sending more state cases over to federal courts, where the stricter rules on class action suits tend to result in less favorable judgments.

After being approved by Congress in early February, the president signed class action reform into law on February 18, 2005.

Links

• The law itself: S 5.

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Washington Post support class action reform.

• The Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the New York Times do not.

Last update - February 19, 2005

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