Household HSBC Watch

Consumer watchdog organization Household - HSBC Watch witnessed changes in class action legislation with mixed emotion yesterday. Consumers need to know that Household International was, and is, a major supporter of these changes and worked hard through lobbying efforts and personal contact to put this legislation through.
President George W. Bush on Friday signed a landmark bill that makes it easier for defendants to move multimillion-dollar class action lawsuits to federal court.

“The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 marks a critical step toward ending the lawsuit culture in our country,” Bush said at his first bill signing ceremony this year in the East Room of the White House.

The bill was a victory for the business lobby, which has spent millions of dollars in a seven-year campaign to prevent plaintiffs’ lawyers from shopping among local jurisdictions in search of big awards.

Under the legislation, class-action suits would be removed from state courts if the aggregate claims are more than 5 million dollars.

The procedural change could have substantive implications because federal courts traditionally have been less sympathetic to class-action cases waged by plaintiffs.

The bill was part of a broader White House campaign to impose rules designed to limit class-action suits, which Bush has described as often frivolous.

“We’re making important progress toward a better legal system,”Bush said. “There’s more to do.”

Household - HSBC Watch likens this legislation to the fox in the hen house, where Household International, and now HSBC, abuse Americans through predatory lending tactics, binding arbitration clauses which border on illegal and oppressive, while petitioning the White House, congress, and the senate for permission to get away with it. Household - HSBC Watch is preparing a letter which you can send to your legislators. Although the legislation passed and was signed by President Bush it does not mean that other elected officials should be re-elected after voting for the measure.