Statement of Todd A. Smith
President, Association of Trial Lawyers of America

"The class action bill passed by the Senate is a shameful attack on Americans' legal rights, despite the fact that ATLA and more than 80 civil rights, senior, consumer and environmental organizations succeeded in making some important improvements.

"Every American's legal rights are diminished by this anti-consumer legislation which establishes greater procedural hurdles for consumers, workers, homeowners and shareholders.

"The insurance, tobacco, drug, chemical and other industries that financed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's $40 million propaganda campaign exposed their fundamental distrust of state legislatures, courts and juries and their disdain for the federal judiciary by ignoring the objections of the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Conference of Chief Justices, the Federal Judicial Conference and Chief Justice Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court.

"ATLA is proud of its six and a half year fight against this dreadful public policy and of the improvements we helped make in stripping the measure of its retroactivity and many of the procedural advantages its advocates hoped might protect wrongdoers like Enron and WorldCom.

"While advocates of this unfair legislation attacked trial lawyers, their real target was and is the American people and their citizen juries. ATLA will continue to aggressively fight for the legal rights of American families."