Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring legal issues in the news. And The Bloomberg Law Brief is brought to you by American Arbitration Association, International Trade or Business Dispute Resolve Faster with the International Center for a Dispute Resolution, the leader in alternative dispute resolution around
the world. I see dr dot org. Today, Bloomberg LA host Juven Grosso and Michael Best discuss three bills currently making their way through the House which aims to protect business interests by restricting class action lawsuits. They speak with Paul Barrett, an editor for Bloomberg Business Week. Paul, how will these bills make it harder to bring class actions?
Chairman good Lat's bill, which is the one that directly addresses class actions, has a whole series of provisions, no one of which would would spell the end of class actions, but in combination, they would make it much more difficult
for plaintiffs lawyers to bring these cases. For example, uh, there's a provision in the bill that requires that a lead the fees for the plaintiff's lawyer be a percentage of only of the money that has actually gone to the alleged victims in the case, so that if the remedies sought by the class action was just a change in corporate behavior, that might mean that the that the plaintiffs layers would not be entitled to any damages, and that in turn, obviously would be a huge deterrent to
the bringing of those kinds of lawsuits. Well, there's also there are also provisions to prevent um firms from doing multiple representations and multiple suits of the same plaintiffs. What's
that all about. Yeah, Well, actually that provision was taken out of the bill at the very very last second because it was attracting a lot of attention, so that there was a provision originally in the bill that basically would have made it very difficult for the experienced securities class action law firms that bring uh cases of that securities fraud cases and frequently represent the same institutional investors over and over. It would have made it very difficult
for them to do business. But good lad actually had the bill amended it literally on the floor at the last minute, and that provision is now out. So Paul, what are the chances that this will pass not just the House but the Senate. Well, these bills are passing
the House, and that's as expected. They face a much tougher set of obstacles in the Senate, where the Republicans have only a fifty two to forty eight advantage, which means that under Senate rules, to avoid a filibuster they need to find eight Democrats to go along with them. Now they have a strategy for that. They're going to target uh Democrats from red states who are up for re election in eighteen and hope that they can peel
away a few of those votes. That's Paul Barrett, an editor for Bloomberg Business Week, speaking with the Bloomberg Law host joom Brasso and Michael Best. You can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio Now. Among the top legal stories from Bloomberg Law, Ford, BMW and Nissan are going to Kunta
Corporation over those exploding air bags. The automakers want to conta to cover losses they incurred because of the faulty air bag inflators that have been linked to seventeen deaths. The suit claims to Kana withheld information about the inflators. The Kanda has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the US and may file for bankruptcy as part of a restructuring. South Korea's austened president Bank Jun Hey has new problems since the country's highest court removed her from office last week.
She's lost her presidential immunity. That means Bach may have to defend herself against criminal charges that she pressured top business executives into donating millions of dollars to foundations run by a close friend. One of the most notorious terrorists from the seventies goes on trial today in Paris. The Venezuela man known as Carlos the Jackal is already serving a life sentence for murders and attacks on behalf of
the Palestinians or the Communist Revolution. Now he faces charges in the nineteen seventy four grenade attack in Paris that killed two people. And that's this morning. Is Bloomberg Law Brief. You can find more illegal news at Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg b NA dot com. Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and business development tools there as well. Visit Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg b NA dot com for more information.