Class Action Fairness Act of 2005
CLASS ACTION FAIRNESS ACT OF 2005
AMENDMENT NO. 12
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to Senator FEINGOLD's amendment which would add a provision to the bill requiring the Federal courts to consider remand motions in class actions within a set timetable. This amendment needs to be rejected because it is unnecessary.
There is not any evidence that the Federal courts are particularly slow in dealing with class actions, or specifically that they are slow relative to remand motions. In fact, there is evidence that the Federal courts move more quickly than State courts in considering these motions because they always consider jurisdictional issues first. Senator Feingold cites three examples of delay to support his amendment, but I do not think that is enough to start placing strict time limits on court procedure. I think that Senator Feingold is in search of a problem that does not really exist.
Also, the amendment could make it hard for judges to issue fair rulings in complicated class action cases because judges would be forced to make rushed decisions. This deadline may be too stringent and inflexible to deal with complex cases, where sometimes several remand motions are considered jointly in order to conserve judicial resources. These motions may require hearings, and the timeframe provided in Senator FEINGOLD's amendment may not be enough time for a court to schedule a hearing and consider all the evidence.
I also understand that Federal judges who have learned of this possible time limitation on deciding these kinds of motions are concerned that it would place an unreasonable restriction on their ability to fairly decide cases. The Judicial Conference sent a letter opposing a previous iteration of Senator FEINGOLD's amendment that was more stringent that the current language. However, this amendment still puts significant time constraints on Federal judges that could prove to be too stringent.
So there just is not any evidence that there is a problem with remand motions in class action cases that requires this time limitation that Senator Feingold is proposing. This is just an attempt to weaken the bill. So I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment.
http://thomas.loc.gov