The act may be cited asthe "Class Action Fairness Act of 2005." Findings and Purposes of the Act. Theact sets out Congress' findings describing in essentially these words the: (1) circumstances in whichclass actions are valuable to our legal system; (2) abuses of the class action process that have harmedclass members with legitimate claims and defendants that have acted responsibly, adversely affectedinterstate commerce, and undermined public respect for our judicial system; (3) the manner by whichclass members have been harmed by a number of actions taken by plaintiffs' lawyers, which providelittle or no benefit to class members as a whole, including (i) plaintiffs' lawyers receiving large fees,while class members are left with coupons or other awards of little or no value, (ii) unjustifiedrewards made to certain plaintiffs at the expense of other class members, and (iii) confusingpublished notices that prevent class members from being able to fully understand and effectivelyexercise their rights; (4) abuses in class actions which undermine the national judicial system, thefree flow of interstate commerce, and the concept of diversity jurisdiction as intended by the framersof the United States Constitution, in that State and local courts are (i) keeping cases of nationalimportance out of federal court, (ii) sometimes acting in ways that demonstrate bias againstout-of-state defendants, and (iii) making judgments that impose their view of the law on other statesand bind the rights of the residents of those states. Consumer Class Action Bill of Rights and ImprovedProcedures for Interstate Class Actions. S. 5 would add five newsections to 28 U.S.C. In doing so, the judge on the motion of any party may receive expert testimony as to the coupons'value. Section 1713-Protection against loss by classmembers
This provision provides that a judge may not approve a class action settlement in which theclass member will be required to pay attorney's fees that would result in a net loss to a class memberunless the court determines in a writing finding that the benefits to the class member substantiallyoutweigh the monetary loss. The appropriate federal officials include the Attorney General and in thecase of financial institutions the federal regulatory authorities. (12) 
Section 5. It would allow class actionlawsuits to be removed from state court to federal court by any defendant without the consent of anyof the other defendants. Report on Class Action Settlements.
S. 5 , the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 has three main sections: (1) anamendment to the federal diversity statute; (2) a provision regarding removal; and (3) a consumerclass action "bill of rights." It would control and restrict class action lawsuits by shifting some ofthe suits from state to federal courts. This would be achieved by creating federal jurisdiction overclass action suits when the total amount in dispute exceeds $5,000,000 and when any plaintiff livesin a state different from that of any defendant. The bill would treat certain "mass actions" with morethan 100 plaintiffs as class actions for purposes of jurisdiction. S. 5 would requirejudges to review all settlements based on the issuance of coupons to plaintiffs and limit attorney'sfees to the value of the coupon settlements actually received by class members. It would also requirecareful scrutiny of "net loss" settlements in which class members ultimately lose money. Thelegislation would ban settlements that award some class members a larger recovery because they livecloser to the court. It would allow federal courts to maximize the benefits of class actionsettlements. Among other things, S. 5 would also require that a notice of proposedsettlements be provided to the appropriate state and federal officials such as the state attorneysgeneral. It was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee without amendment. On February10, 2005, the Senate passed S. 5 (72-26) without amendment. On February 17, 2005,the House also passed S. 5 without amendment, 279-149 and it is expected to be signedby the President.