… Read More

November 7, 2017
The Honorable Charles E. Grassley, Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Dianne Feinstein, Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein:

On November 8, 2017, the Committee is holding a hearing to examine “lawsuit abuse.” The
focus is apparently on whether the legal rights of individuals and small businesses should be
taken away. The undersigned organizations urge the Committee, in the strongest possible terms,
to reject such a course of action.

Today, those who have been injured, defrauded, cheated, discriminated against or otherwise
harmed, struggle to even get into civil court. Many individuals and businesses with legitimate
claims have been entirely blocked from bringing cases, disrupting the health, safety and
economic security of American families. Their legal rights have been severely weakened by
hundreds if not thousands of so-called “tort reform” laws that have become law around the
country in the last 40 years, a series of Supreme Court decisions that have stripped everyday
people of their 7th Amendment rights (including allowing wrongdoers to unilaterally block class
actions against them), and other action and inaction by Congress.

Just last … Read More

United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
October 23, 2017

Dear Members of the United States House of Representatives,
We urge you to oppose H.R. 732, the so-called Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2017. The
bill prohibits settlement agreements where the United States is a party from including certain
“donations” to non-federal actors, primarily non-profits, educational, and community-based
organizations.

Under existing laws, settlements from federal enforcement actions can include payments to third
parties to advance programs that assist with recovery, benefits, and relief for communities
harmed by lawbreakers, to the extent such payments further the objectives of the enforcement
action. H.R. 732 would cut off any payments to third parties other than individualized restitution
and other forms of direct payment for “actual harm.” That restriction would handcuff federal
enforcement officials by limiting the ability of federal enforcement officials to negotiate real
relief for harms caused to the public by illegal conduct that is the subject of federal enforcement
actions.

This bill would be a gift to lawbreakers at the expense of families and communities suffering
from injuries that cannot be addressed by direct restitution because the bill would prevent federal
law enforcement agencies from negotiating forms of relief … Read More

The Honorable Patty Murray
United States Senate
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
United States House of Representatives
Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Re: The Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act

Dear Senator Murray and Congresswoman DeLauro:

The undersigned organizations write in enthusiastic support for The Wage Theft Prevention and Wage
Recovery Act (S. 2697/H.R. 4376), which you introduced on March 16, 2016. As you know, wage theft is
an epidemic that costs mostly low-wage workers tens of billions of dollars each year in unpaid wages.
The legal tools they have at their disposal, be it thinly-resourced departments of labor or private
lawsuits, are not available to far too many workers seeking to be properly paid for all of their work. The
Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act is an important and truly comprehensive weapon in the
fight against wage theft.

This legislation, if enacted, would for the first time, impose a federal mandate that workers be paid the
wages they were promised, not just the federal minimum wage. The bill would also impose a uniform
federal standard for what must be disclosed on a pay stub, giving workers the … Read More