Senators Back Y2K Litigation Reform

(January 16, 1999)  Sen. Bob Bennett used a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Friday, January 15, to plead for Year 2000 litigation reform. "If the trial lawyers loved the tobacco settlement, they are going to go bananas over this," he said.  Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Slade Gorton also announced on Friday that they will introduce legislation to curb unnecessary litigation resulting from Year 2000 computer disruptions.

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT), who is also the Chairman of the Senate Year 2000 Committee, stated that:

"There could be as much at a trillion dollars in liability. If the trial lawyers loved the tobacco settlement, they are going to go bananas over this one, unless we can find ways to deal with it intelligently in the Congress, and lessen some of the liability."

"We need to prepare ourselves for potential counter-productive lawsuits resulting from the Y2K problem" said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in a joint press release.  "Without legislation, innocent people may be hurt by aggressive trial lawyers who use the Y2K situation, not to help the public, but to enrich their own pockets."  Sen. McCain is Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

"We should pass legislation that will help to address problems before they happen," said Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA).   "Considering the overwhelming number of products and services that conceivably could be disrupted, we need legislation that allows businesses to solve the problem rather than defend against frivolous lawsuits."

See, related story, "Y2K Chief Koskinen Testifies before Senate Appropriations Committee," 1/16/99.

Sen. Bennett attended a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting on Friday morning on funding for emergency expenses related to Year 2000 conversion of federal information technology systems and related expenses.  He pointed out that fixing the Y2K problems worldwide will cost around $600 Billion.  However, total liability will be about one Trillion dollars.

John Koskinen, the sole witness at the hearing, declined to confirm or deny that there is any need for Y2K litigation reform.  

Neither McCain, Gorton, nor Bennett have introduced a bill on this subject in the 106th Congress.  Also, none of the three sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would have jurisdiction over any such bill.  However, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is a member of the Judiciary Committee, and will likely also be involved in this effort.

Members of the House, such as Rep. David Dreier (D-CA), are also likely to introduce Y2K litigation reform bills.

Exchange Between Sen. Stevens, Sen. Bennett, and John Koskinen Regarding Year 2000 Liability at Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing on January 15, 1999.
Sen. Ted Stevens.  ...  A friend of mine in Alaska told me that he was worried about trying to make the changes in his systems to meet this problem, because if he failed, he might increase his liability, and decrease the liability of the manufacturer.  Have you looked into this problem yet?  About -- should we relieve people of assuming liability if they try to fix it?
Sen. Bob Bennett.  That is going to be one of the subjects of the hearings that we will hold in our Committee.  The estimates we have received in our Committee, as far as money is concerned, tell us that whatever it costs to fix this thing worldwide, there are some estimates say that it will cost more than the Vietnam war.   The Vietnam war ultimately worldwide cost about 500 billion dollars.  And this thing is going to cost 600 billion dollars just to get it fixed.  Then, the estimates say, there could be as much as a trillion dollars in liability. If the trial lawyers loved the tobacco settlement, they are going to go bananas over this one, unless we can find ways to deal with it intelligently in the Congress, and lessen some of the liability.   But, so, on our Committee we are going to address that. And Senator Kyl, who is a member of our Committee, who is also a member of the Judiciary, is going to take the lead in trying to find some kind of safe harbor legislation that might make this a little easier to get this, problem.  Any comments on that?
John Koskinen. Well, there has been concern, and in fact again, I would compliment the Congress for their cooperation with us in passing the Information Readiness and Disclosure Act last year which limited liability and protected people for making voluntary disclosures of information and readiness, which I think is going to help us significantly in getting information shared. ...