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Legislation seeks to stem expensive Y2K lawsuits
by Matt Hamblen
(IDG) -- With 34 lawsuits over year 2000 problems already
in the courts, House and Senate Republicans hope to
stem a costly legal stampede with legislation, including
a bill filed last week.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced the Y2K Act,
which has been referred to his Senate Commerce
Committee. A similar House bill was filed Jan. 6. Both
measures limit court awards so that punitive damages
would be no larger than three times the amount of
actual economic losses. The bills also would create
courtroom alternatives such as arbitration to avoid
time-consuming court proceedings. "The purpose of this
legislation is to ensure that we look to solving ... Y2K
rather than clog our courts with years of costly
litigation," McCain said.
There are already at least 34 year 2000 lawsuits
pending in state and federal courts, including the latest,
brought Jan. 13 by a large New York law firm against
AT&T Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc., according to
analysts and court records.
The Clinton administration is unsure legislation is
necessary. "There is no consensus position on liability
legislation among the industry groups working on the
matter," said John Koskinen, chairman of the President's
Year 2000 Conversion Council. However, David LeDuc,
manager of legislative policy at the Software and
Information Industry Association in Washington, said
his group is working with an informal Y2K coalition of
industries that believes otherwise. "There's a consensus
and a need for a large bill . . . to address the large
number of cases coming," he said.
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