Association of Washington Business (AWB) President Don Brunell said that employers in Washington are deeply disappointed in both Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell voting to kill the Class Action Fairness Act of 2003 bill (S.1751). He urged them to keep working to develop legislation which can pass before Congress adjourns for the year. The bill failed to pass the Senate by one vote.

Brunell said he was encouraged to hear that Cantwell is working to find a compromise on class action fairness and urged Murray to join her. “Voting ‘No’ on any tort reform legislation should not be an option if we are going to fix a badly broken legal system that kills jobs and does not compensate true victims in a timely way,” he stated.

AWB is hopeful that Washington’s senators can also work to find ways to pass medical malpractice and asbestos lawsuit reforms in 2003 as well.

Brunell and former Democratic Governor Booth Gardner coordinated the Washington state efforts to pass Class Action Lawsuit Reform in Congress. The legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 1115 by a 253-170 vote June 12.

“It is a top priority of the employer community nationwide, and their vote will be included on AWB’s Congressional Voting Record which will be published after the current session of Congress adjourns,” noted Brunell. “As you can see by the votes, this is not a partisan issue. It is a fairness issue. It was a good bill, and it would have passed if either Senators Murray or Cantwell would have supported it. To lose by one vote knowing that either of your state’s two senators could have made the difference is very disappointing.”

In the Senate, Democrat Sens. Evan Bayh (Indiana), Tom Carper (Delaware), Diane Feinstein (California), Herb Kohl (Wisconsin), Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas), Zell Miller (Georgia), Ben Nelson (Nebraska) and Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut) joined Republicans and Independent James Jeffords (Vermont) in voting for cloture to essentially insure that S. 1751 would pass and go on to President Bush for his signature into law.

President Bush told Brunell and five other Washington business leaders during a meeting in Seattle on August 22 that he strongly supports the legislation and would have signed it into law. The President said, “It is up to the U.S. Senate, and Senators Cantwell and Murray are key votes.”

The Class Action Fairness Act is a top priority for AWB and its national affiliates. So is medical malpractice and asbestos lawsuit reform.

“Each year courts award millions in class action lawsuits,” Brunell said. “By the time those awards trickle to individuals, who are party to the suit, it is generally a pittance. Attorney fees and court costs can take more than half the settlement before it is distributed.”

The National Association of Manufacturers Vice President for Regulatory and Competition Policy, Lawrence Fineran, said, “It’s ludicrous that a simple slip-and-fall case between two people in different states with $75,001 at stake would go straight to federal court, but a lawsuit involving millions of people from all 50 states and hundreds of millions of dollars could wind up before a state court judge simply because the plaintiffs found a local defendant — who may not have even had any relationship to the actual case.”

H.R. 1115 and S. 1751 direct federal courts hear class-action lawsuit involving plaintiffs or defendants from multiple states or foreign countries. “It will help to limit “forum shopping,” whereby trial lawyers look for plaintiff-friendly state courts,” Brunell said.