Congressman Cohen Decries House Vote to Protect Terrorists from Class Action Lawsuits

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today decried the House of Representatives for voting down his amendment to the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2015 (H.R. 1927) which would have protected the current ability of victims of terrorist attacks to use class actions to sue those responsible. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 158 to 211. A video of Congressman Cohen’s floor speech can be found here.

“We should be making it easier for victims to recover against terrorists, not harder.” said Congressman Cohen. “It is hard enough as it is to pursue class actions because of years of efforts by industry to make it more and more difficult to do so. It is just wrong to place the heightened burdens of this bill [H.R. 1927] on terrorism victims who seek justice for the acts committed against them.”

The Fairness in Class Action Litigation, H.R. 1927, would limit the ability of federal courts to certify classes for individuals seeking to pursue a class action suit to recover damages. Specifically, it would require that potential class members suffer the same type and scope of injury.

The bill, “can be read to preclude a class action where, for instance, one terrorism victim loses his legs, while another his arms as a result of the same terrorist attack – in short that they did not suffer the same ‘scope’ of injury.” said Congressman Cohen.

Video of Congressman Cohen speaking out against the bill can be found here.

Congressman Cohen’s amendment would have protected the ability of victims of terrorist attacks, whose injuries may not always be precisely the same, to band together as a class to seek damages from terrorists.

The Fairness in Class Action Litigation ultimately passed the House today by a vote of 211 to 188. Congressman Cohen voted against it.