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(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the House reported version is repeated here.)
Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2017
(Sec. 2) This bill amends the sanctions provisions in Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to require the court to impose an appropriate sanction on any attorney, law firm, or party that has violated, or is responsible for the violation of, the rule with regard to representations to the court. Any sanction must compensate parties injured by the conduct in question.
The bill removes a provision that prohibits filing a motion for sanctions if the challenged paper, claim, defense, contention, or denial is withdrawn or appropriately corrected within 21 days after service or within another time the court sets.
Courts may impose additional sanctions, including striking the pleadings, dismissing the suit, nonmonetary directives, or penalty payments if warranted for effective deterrence.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, describing H.R. 720 as passed House without amendment on Mar 10, 2017. It is not the text of the measure; a later amendment may have changed what it does.
Mar 10, 2017Each bar: ✓ Yea from the bottom, ✕ Nay aboveMar 10, 2017
House Mar 10, 2017 · the primary vote
Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act
Passed
230 Yea 188 Nay 11 not voting
Party-line vote 8 of 418 voting members broke with their own party: 3 Democrats, 5 Republicans.
DemocratsRepublicansFilled: YeaRing: NayGrey: not voting or present
429 members on this roll call, from the official House record. Party majorities need at least five voting members, so an independent never counts as breaking with a party.
Signing on is not a vote: a member can cosponsor H.R. 720 and vote against it. 6 signed when it was filed.
Organizations that named H.R. 720 in a lobbying disclosure. Only those that cited the bill by number appear, so this is a floor, not a full list.
126 disclosures name this measure. Retrieved from LDA.gov on 2026-10-05. Senate Office of Public Records cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from LDA.gov.