House Poised to Pass Bills Overhauling Civil Litigation

By Bruce Kaufman, Bloomberg BNA

The House is poised to pass three bills this week championed by industry that may tilt the civil litigation process in favor of business in thousands of cases each year.

Business groups are encouraged about the measures’ chances of eventual enactment. That’s because the House is not only taking up the far-reaching bills addressing class actions, asbestos cases and attorneys who file “frivolous” suits, but it is doing so at rapid speed.

The fast-track approach is deemed essential to give the bills time to advance in the more-deliberative Senate, where 60 votes are needed to ...