“Foreign manufacturers are not being held to the same standards – this puts at risk American consumers and businesses, and puts American manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage.

A major cause of this disparity is that Americans injured by foreign products face unnecessary and inappropriate procedural hurdles if they seek to hold foreign manufacturers accountable.

First, they must identify the manufacturer of the product that injured them – often not an easy task since many foreign products do no more than indicate their country of origin.  Second, an injured American must serve process on the foreign manufacturer.  This means the injured American has to deliver legal papers to the company directly or through a registered agent explaining that he or she is bringing a legal action against it.  But this simple step often requires enormous time and expense – lawsuits even can fail over it – as the injured American attempts to comply with various complicated international treaties.  Third, an injured American must overcome the technical defense that, even though a foreign manufacturer’s product was used by an American consumer, the courts of that consumer’s home state do not have jurisdiction over that company.  Finally, even after an injured American has overcome these hurdles and prevailed in court, a foreign manufacturer can avoid collection on the judgment – often simply cutting off communications or shutting up its business and starting up again with a different name.

Americans harmed by defective foreign products need justice, and they do not get it when foreign manufacturers use technical legal defenses to avoid paying damages to the people they have injured.  Today’s hearing will help us learn more about these failures of justice and what we can do to fix them.”

For the offcial details, see U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Leveling the Playing Field and Protecting Americans.