BIG “I” HAILS SENATE PASSAGE OF CLASS ACTION BILL
Legislation expected to move through House, become law quickly
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 10—The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”) today hailed the Senate’s passage of the Class Action Fairness Act and is hopeful that the legislation will become law quickly.
“We are very pleased that the Senate has come together on a class-action bill that will help curb frivolous lawsuits and provide consistency in these types of legal cases,” says Charles E. Symington Jr., Big “I” senior vice president of federal government affairs. “The Senate has passed a bill that will balance the needs of consumers and small businesses, which is exactly what the Big ‘I’ has been pushing for over the last few years.”
The Big “I” has strongly supported necessary reforms to the nation’s class action system, particularly changes that would put an end to so-called ‘venue shopping,’ in which plaintiffs’ lawyers steer cases to particular state courts which are trial-lawyer friendly. Such abuses of the system encourage frivolous lawsuits and create hardships for small businesses, including independent insurance agents and brokers.
The Big “I” hopes that the House will quickly pass similar legislation, and that a bill will go to President Bush for his signature in the near future. Congressmen introduced a bipartisan class-action bill last week in the House. The President has been very supportive of the need for class-action reform and overarching legal reform in general, including asbestos and medical-malpractice reform.
“The Big ‘I’ has 300,000 members across America who today are applauding the Senate for this important step toward reform,” Symington says. “We thank the Senate, the House and President Bush for making these necessary changes a priority. With today’s Senate passage, we are nearing the culmination of years of hard work by our association and its members, and by the public servants who saw the need for reform and kept pushing forward. We will continue to work with elected officials to enact similar necessary reforms on asbestos and medical-malpractice litigation.”
Founded in 1896, the Big “I” is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance—property, casualty, life, health, employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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