Insurers Press Senate For Litigation Reform
By Matt Brady
NU Online News Service, Jan. 19, 4:12 p.m. EST, Washington?Insurance and other financial services industry leaders have called on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to pass class action reform legislation early next month.[@@]
"Class action reforms will end abuses of the class action system, increase the rights of class members and lower the cost of doing business in America and will lead to new job creation," they said last week.
Their message was conveyed in a short letter addressed to Sen. Frist by the Financial Services Roundtable, a consortium of companies and trade associations representing the spectrum of financial industries.
Among those signing the letter were AEGON USA president and CEO Patrick Baird, Chubb Corp. Chairman and CEO John Finnegan, Frederick Geissinger, chairman and CEO of AIG's American General Financial Services, MassMutual Chairman and CEO Robert O'Connell and Edward Rust, chairman and CEO of State Farm Insurance Companies.
The class action reform bill was crafted to ensure what supporters claim will be a greater degree of fairness in the civil litigation system.
Under the legislation, the majority of class actions would be moved to the federal court system to prevent attorneys from picking jurisdictions to file their claims in that have a reputation as plaintiff friendly. Additionally, the letter noted, class members would also be given new rights, such as the right to receive case information in plain English rather than legal language.
"We urge you to act in February to bring up and pass class action reforms and end abuse of large, multi-state class action lawsuits, increase the rights of class members, and help strengthen the job market," the letter said.
The Republican controlled House has already approved the bill, but the measure has failed several times to win passage in the more evenly divided Senate.
On one occasion, Republican supporters were forced to shelve the bill after coming up one vote short of the 60 needed to obtain Senate cloture, which would have limited debate on the bill and effectively removed the threat of a filibuster.
Afterwards, several Democrats, including Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., came forward with offers to become the 60th vote if some of their concerns could be addressed.
Discussions continued after that, with several changes being made to the bill. Those revisions and the reelection of President Bush, a strong advocate of litigation reform, have increased expectations that the bill will receive Senate approval.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.