Class action lawsuit limits

In what should be an interesting political battle, the Senate just passed a bill limiting class action lawsuits that conservatives have sought for probably a decade or more. I support some limits, anyone would have to admit that there have been some ridiculous damages awarded as of late. However, it was recently suggested that one of the main motivations of limiting them is to try and cut off the source of funding for the Democratic Party, which recevies some large donations from lawyers. If that is the case then its pretty sleazy politics, something you would not expect outside of Chicago decades ago.

From what I read, the bill will mainly shift many suits to federal courts instead of state courts, and that may be a good move since some lawsuit plantiffs go court shopping to find their best change of winning. It also would raise the standards to make a law suit a class action suit, something else that was probably necessary.

You can read the story here from AP via Yahoo here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20050210/ap_on_go_co/limiting_lawsuits