New York Post REPUBLICANS 1, LAWYERS 0 Sat Feb 19, 4:25 AM ET Yesterday, President Bush (news - web sites) signed that measure into law. As a result, lawyers seeking to cash in on clbutt-action suits will find it harder to "shop" for favorable local judges. Instead, they'll have to take those cases to federal courts, in a much more fair process. Bear in mind that this bill lost by a single vote in the Senate last time. This time, it pbutted 72-26. Their party's losses in the last election plainly inspired several Democrats to vote on common sense, rather than their leaders' wishes. As for the bill's merits, Bush has rightly noted that the tort system is in bad need of repair. The mess is a drain on the economy, allowing plaintiffs to unfairly target deep-pocketed businesses, which pbutt on their legal costs to consumers. Frivolous or unfair medical-malpractice suits threaten to drive many doctors and specialists out of business. The new law targets one of the worst legal abuses: "forum shopping" � taking the case to, say, an obscure town in Mississippi or Texas to greatly boost the odds of getting a too-friendly judge and jury. Now lawyers can only take a clbutt-action suit to a state court if the main defendant and more than a third of the plaintiffs are from that same state. If not, they must go to the federal courts. But federal courts would only hear clbutt-action suits involving a minimum of $5 million. And plaintiff lawyers will face some restrictions on their fees. New York's junior senator, Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) (a lawyer herself), sought to do New York � and the nation � a big disservice (and her fellow lawyers a favor) by voting against this sensible measure. By contrast, the state's senior senator, Chuck Schumer, not only voted for the bill, but co-sponsored it. Kudos to Schumer for that. The new law is only the first step in fulfilling Bush's vision of tort reform: Measures to rein in asbestos litigation and malpractice lawsuits are on the horizon. But clbutt-action reform is a good start. And the victory is a reminder that elections have consequences and can bring about real change � and not just in the national-security arena.
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