The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act: The Legislative Bid to Regulate Lawyer Conduct

17 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2006

See all articles by Lonny Hoffman

Lonny Hoffman

University of Houston Law Center

Abstract

In this short paper, which is based on a presentation I gave at THE REVIEW OF LITIGATION's annual symposium, THE REVIEW at 25: Looking to the Future of Litigation, on February 23, 2006, I discuss Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the proposed Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, a bill which is currently circulating through Congress. LARA would have the effect, inter alia, of returning Rule 11 to its mandatory 1983 form. It would also, quite remarkably, make the new legislatively-revised Rule 11 applicable to any state case involving interstate commerce. For these and other reasons, LARA is a significant piece of proposed legislation that deserves our attention. As I note in the paper, in 2005 LARA passed the House of Representatives overwhelmingly. The House previously passed an earlier and very similar version of this same bill a couple of years ago. The bill has not yet gone up for a vote in the Senate and it is not clear what its prospects are for passage. The legislation is not at the top of the agenda of the Republican leadership in the Senate at the moment, but there are good reasons for thinking it may gain legislative momentum in the not too distant future.

Keywords: Rule 11, LARA, Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, Sanctions, Certification Requirements

JEL Classification: K00, K10, K40, K41

Suggested Citation

Hoffman, Lonny, The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act: The Legislative Bid to Regulate Lawyer Conduct. Review of Litigation, 2006, U of Texas Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 101, U of Houston Law Center No. 2007-A-05, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=906044

Lonny Hoffman (Contact Author)

University of Houston Law Center ( email )

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