Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. FRANKEL of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the so-called Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act (H.R. 758). This misguided bill would reinstate procedural rules that failed thirty years ago, stripping federal judges of the ability to impose the sanctions they deem appropriate for bringing frivolous lawsuits. During the ten years the old rules were in effect, judges completely lost their discretion about whether or not to impose sanctions on attorneys and were forced to issue harsh penalties for even the smallest infractions. Heavy punishments under the old system lead to endless motions that clogged our already burdened legal system, preventing access to justice.

Moreover, had the provisions in this bill been law for all of the twentieth century, they would have prevented dozens of landmark civil rights cases from moving forward. Under this bill, both Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down school segregation, and Loving v. Virginia, which eliminated bans on interracial marriage, might not have made it into the courtroom. To rectify this situation, Congress in 1993 brought back the standards that existed during the Civil Rights Era, giving judges more flexibility and focusing on deterrence, rather than punishment. H.R. 758 would undo that work by abandoning our faith in judicial prudence. We should not repeat the mistakes of the past, and we should not allow this bill to become law.

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