It was the kind of legal action that made a heroine out of beauty-queen-turned-crusader Erin Brockovich, pitting the little people against the might of corporate America. But now the US Congress is set to hand business chiefs the greatest gift since the advent of the George W. Bush administration: an end to so-called "class action" suits.
In 1996 Brockovich won damages of US$333million from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company for the people of Hinkley, California, over pollution of the water supply.
Brockovich -- played by Julia Roberts in the film -- is suing again: this time against district and oil companies who have drilled beneath a school, allegedly causing Hodgkin's disease and cancer.
If measures now being pushed through Congress succeed, her career as a champion of local people against big industry is over.
In the past, most class-action suits were filed through state courts. In some of the better-known cases, against cigarette and later gun manufacturers, actions swept across states to become a tidal wave of litigation.
A case has recently been won in Madison, Illinois, against Philip Morris, where a judge awarded plaintiffs US$12 billion after finding that the cigarette-maker failed to inform consumers that "light" brands were no less harmful than full-tar cigarettes.
But the House of Representatives has voted by 253 to 170 to thwart the vast majority of class-action suits in state courthouses, limiting all but the smallest claims to federal courts, where the big companies, say citizens' groups, find it easier to delay the progress of suits and "shop" for courts more favorable to their interests.
"It's the biggest thing for years," said a jubilant Lawrence Fineran, vice-president at the Association of Manufacturers. "Just about every industry group is on this bandwagon, because every industry is affected."
The battle over the future of class actions, in which consumer and environmental groups face some of the Bush administration's most powerful financial backers, now goes to the Senate, where Republicans won a powerful majority during last winter's mid-term elections.
Big firms and their lobby groups in Washington -- led by the insurance, energy and private health giants -- have been pushing for years to achieve a shift away from state benches, to which judges are usually elected, to the politically appointed federal judiciary.
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