mr. speaker , i would like to thank the gentleman for the opportunity to speak on this bill today . 
he has been leading a very important discussion and one that i am very pleased has finally come to fruition . 
mr. speaker , there has been a lot of discussion today about class actions and what they do to the economy ; class actions , what they have done to law , because state courts are making national law . 
but i think the most important point about a class action is that a class action 's purpose is to award the plaintiffs who have been injured . 
the intent of these suits is to allow large groups who were similarly harmed by something to recover damages . 
unfortunately , it is the attorneys who have been recovering more money . 
the injured plaintiffs in many cases are recovering basically nothing . 
first , they are denied real relief , and then the attorneys pocket huge amounts of money . 
examples , bank of boston case , the lawyers got 8.5 million . 
the plaintiffs actually lost money . 
in the blockbuster case , the lawyers , 9.25 million . 
the plaintiffs got $ 1 off their next movie . 
the coca-cola case , the lawyers got 1.5 million ; the plaintiffs , a 50-cent coupon . 
obviously , these lawsuits are not helping their intended beneficiaries . 
this act will create a consumer class action bill of rights . 
it will protect consumers from the egregious abuses of the class action practice today . 
the plan will require the judges carefully review the settlement and limit the attorneys fees when the value of the settlement received by those class members is minor in comparison or when there is a net loss in the settlement , such as this example where the class members could end up losing money . 
it also will ban settlements that award some class members a large recovery because they live closer to the court . 
it will also allow federal courts to maximize the benefit of class action settlements by requiring that unclaimed settlement funds be donated to charitable organizations . 
mr. speaker , it is just obvious to me that this is a long-overdue bill . 
i encourage my colleagues to support it . 
i encourage my colleagues to ensure that the plaintiffs actually receive their due in these cases . 
