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Article published Nov 7, 2003
Graham wants federal court losers to pay up
Jessica Abo
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON --
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Thursday that
they're not "lawyer bashers" -- after all, they're lawyers, too. But they're
determined to end abuses of the legal system by making the loser in federal
court cases pay a price."You can sue someone essentially without any reason, but
if you lose, there are no cons to suing someone, in essence, frivolously," said
Cornyn, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Graham and Sen. Charles Grassley,
R-Iowa.Their "Loser Pays" bill would require the loser in federal court cases to
pay for the winner's attorneys' fees. The measure is designed to encourage
parties to settle cases and keep nuisance suits out of the courtroom while
protecting legitimate claims.The legislation would only apply when the parties
are from different states. The winners would receive compensation only after
they offered a settlement that was rejected and filed a petition with the judge
requesting compensation."Right now you're playing roulette with other people's
money," Graham said. "People of means get sued a lot because there's an
understanding that money will be put on the table to make you go away. And
anybody who says that is not true is either naive or lying."Graham said it's
time for the legal culture change. He said the goal of the bill is to deter
people from bringing "folks into the legal arena just to cash them out."Ed Cole,
a defense attorney at the Ward Law Firm in Spartanburg, said in a telephone
interview that he agrees with the bill's concept. He supported giving a judge
discretion to award attorney fees to the winning side in frivolous cases."It
would encourage plaintiffs to take a closer look," he said, "because defendants
are already taking a closer look because they're the ones who have to pay the
money for any judgment or jury verdict."Charlie Hodge, a plaintiff's attorney at
Hodge Law Firm, also in Spartanburg, said there's nothing wrong with the current
system."Sometimes when you attempt to fix something that isn't broken you get a
worse result," he said.