Law Commons^™

Reforming Common Sense Legal Reforms, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Contract With America figured prominently in the Republican Party's victories in the 1994 congressional races. During the opening days of the 104th Congress, therefore, approximately one hundred sponsors introduced the Common Sense Legal Refonns Act (CSLRA), which embodied several measures that comprised the Contract's ninth precept. The only constituent of this package of proposals which actually became law was the Private Securities Litigation Refonn Act (PSLRA). Both Houses of Congress did pass products liability reform bills but lacked the requisite votes to override President Bill Clinton's veto. The House of Representatives approved the Attorney Accountability Act (AAA), which would …

Common Sense And Other Legal Reforms, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Enactment of Congress' proposed Common Sense Legal Reforms Act (CSLRA) would impose procedural and substantive reforms that could significantly affect much federal civil litigation and could have substantial systemic impacts on the civil justice process. For instance, the measure's advocates drafted and introduced the proposed legislation with little apparent appreciation for how it might conflict with a number of ongoing public and private reform initiatives, such as an earlier Congress's Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 and the American Law Institute's efforts to adopt a Third Restatement of Torts governing products liability.

The bill's enactment, therefore, could additionally complicate the …