``We oppose this serious restriction on consumer access to justice.'' Harry M. Snyder, Consumers Union, Publisher of Consumer Reports.
People who have a pension plan or retirement savings should vote ``No'' so they don't become victims of stock swindlers.
Here's how stock manipulation and insider trading works.
Many companies give executives big ``stock options.'' Those executives make some ``big announcement'' . . . a new invention, product, or great earnings. The stock price jumps as small investors try to ``get in on the ground floor.''
Then once stock prices jump, the ``insiders'' sell their stock for a big profit. Later the ``breakthrough invention'' fizzles, the product fails, or the earnings don't come through. But the small investors are left holding the bag and losing their shirts.
Fortunately, many of those people have sued and gotten some of their money back.
The victims of Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan swindle were not ``professional plaintiffs.'' They were elderly people who filed a lawsuit and recovered 85% of their money.
Under Proposition 201, before small investors can sue the inside traders, they'll have to put up deposits--maybe millions of dollars--to pay the corporation's legal fees.
Will small investors take that chance and sue multi-million dollar corporations? No.
Proposition 201 is funded by corporations that had to settle lawsuits against them and pay back millions of dollars to their investors.
Under Proposition 201, the only winners are the corporations that paid to put it on the ballot . . . you and every other consumer will lose.
LEAH KANE
Chair of Keating Victims Association of Leisure
World, Laguna Hills, California
LOIS WELLINGTON
President, Congress of California Seniors