Democrats Vote To Reward Trial Lawyers At The Expense Of Consumers

WASHINGTON - During consideration of H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted against two amendments offered by Republicans that would prevent abusive litigation.

One amendment offered by Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) would prevent abusive litigation by ensuring that the legislation does not create any new private rights of action. The McHenry amendment would leave enforcement of rules, regulations, and duties with the regulators, to ensure that these rules are implemented consistently and fairly.

The Democrats' legislation confers virtually unlimited discretion on the CFPA, empowering the Director to prescribe hundreds of new regulations and issue orders and guidance that could potentially restructure the entire financial landscape. Only one group of constituents benefits from using private rights of action to enforce these hundreds of new regulations: the trial lawyers who would gain from chasing million-dollar lawsuits.

Another amendment, offered by Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) would remove a provision in the legislation permitting the Director to prohibit arbitration of disputes between consumers and the providers of financial services and products.

Binding arbitration is a cost effective and efficient method of resolving contractual disputes between consumers and financial institutions and typically benefits consumers. By providing consumers and financial institutions with a cheaper and quicker alternative to litigation, arbitration can help ease the burden on our over-worked judicial system and help unclog the dockets of our nation's state and federal courts.

As a result of the Democrats voting against the McHenry and Price amendments, trial lawyers will gain from the legislation at the expense of consumers. Financial institutions seeking to avoid liability may simply refuse to offer innovative products, thereby constricting consumer credit at a time when our nation's economy needs it the most. Financial institutions that take the risk of being sued would likely be forced to raise the prices of the services they offer to reflect the costs that runaway litigation could impose upon them, thereby punishing consumers with higher credit costs.

The vote on the McHenry amendment was 28-41. The vote on the Price amendment was 27-42.

A friend sent me the following as an email. It seems appropriate to append it to this post about Democrats and their Trial Lawyer donors.

It’s time again for the annual ‘Stella Awards’!

For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That’s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stellas for the past year:

SEVENTH PLACE
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

Start scratching!

SIXTH PLACE
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.
Scratch some more...

FIFTH PLACE
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage... Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count ‘em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish... Keep scratching. There are more...
Double hand scratching after this one..

FOURTH PLACE
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella’s when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor’s beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun. Pick a new spot to scratch, you’re getting a bald spot..

THIRD PLACE
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

Only two more so ease up on the scratching....

SECOND PLACE
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000......oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.

Ok. Here we go!!

FIRST PLACE
This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma , who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? — $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

Are we, as a society, getting more stupid...... or are more members of Congress serving on juries these days?

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