Oklahoma State Senate
Senator Charlie LAster
Judiciary Chairman
Senate District 17
Pottawatomie, Oklahoma and Cleveland Counties

For Immediate Release: March 6, 2006

Republicans Are More Interested In Politics than Lawsuit Reform

Statement by Senator Charlie Laster

“Senator Coffee could have filed a so-called ‘meaningful’ tort reform bill before the session, but he didn’t. Instead, he plopped a 124-page amendment to my bill on the desk this morning in hopes we would all abandon the bill that had been heard in committee in favor of one nobody has had time read.
“It’s not like he had a bill that wasn’t heard in the Judiciary Committee. The truth is that he only filed a one-page shell bill and never asked me to hear a committee substitute dealing with tort reform.
“We had 21 Democratic votes for a lawsuit reform measure that would reduce the cost of doing business in Oklahoma for small businesses. Not a single Republican voted for the measure. If only four members of the Senate Republican caucus were interested in helping small business in Oklahoma, the measure would have passed.
“That should show Oklahomans that Republicans in the Legislature aren’t interested in tort reform. They’re interested in politics.”

For more information contact:
Senator Laster's Office - (405) 521-5539