Latest
News
| CONTACT US |
Center for Legal & Responsible Commerce
Suite 213
1431 Old McHenry Road
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
Phone: (847) 955-1276
FAX: (847) 955-1953 |
 |
We
Focus On Restoring Balance To Commerce
We monitor the activities of the
federal and Illinois governments. When we learn of statutes
or regulations that impact consumers, we will post links to the necessary
documents here.
S.1828 - Among several other bills provides for the indemnification of vaccine manufacturers by the federal government (i.e., taxpayers). When they make money, they get to keep it, when they lose money, taxpayers get to bail them out.
H.R.420 - With all the problems Congress has to deal with, it is amazing they found time to legislatively bypass the rules amendment process in an attempt to amend Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11. While we agree that some changes to FRCP 11 are appropriate (e.g., reduce the 21 days safe harbor to 10 days), the proper method for accomplishing this change should be through the normal rule amendment process. Many of the proposed changes to FRCP 11 would be a giant step backwards and would remove discretion from those most capable of determining whether sanctions are appropriate. When this was tried from 1983-1993, idiotic results included the imposition of sanctions merely because one party lost at trial. The legislation also ignores basic principles of federalism by forcing state courts to make findings regard regarding whether a state court action affects the interstate economy, and if it does, apply FRCP 11 to those cases. There are several aspects of this bill that are probably unconstitutional. Finally, tThis is another one of those bills that the business community should really think hard about, especially §§ 8 & 9. Our experience shows that this legislation will come back to bite corporations far more than those suing corporations.
HB 4205 (Illinois) - While a good start, this bill does not go far enough with respect to eliminating inactivity fees from gift certificates. The bill exempts from the definition gift certificates:
"Any gift certificate usable with multiple sellers of goods or services."
As a practical matter, there is no reasonable justification for exempting VISA, MasterCard and other gift cards from the prohibition on inactivity fees. Call your senator and ask them to fix this bill and send it back to the house.
SB 1911 w/ House Amendment #1 (Illinois) - This bill would save plaintiffs from having to call their physician(s) to testify at trial as to the reasonableness of their bill. Insurance companies know that this is an expensive proposition for plaintiffs, even where there is only one physician. Insurers factor the expense of expert witness fees into their settlement offer, an offer that usually does not cover the medical bills even before the deduction of expert witness fees and other litigation related expenses. Given that very few doctors are going to testify that their bills are excessive, requiring doctors to testify to the reasonableness of their bills is wasteful and takes doctors away from treating patients. Should this bill fail, we should pressure the legislature to shift the expense of expert witness fees to insurance companies, where the trial results in a verdict greater than insurer's settlement offer.
