“The long and short of their opinion was joinder cannot be used to establish venue,” Emery told the Post-Dispatch.

Under the proposed change, which was sent to the House for further debate on a partisan 24-7 vote, an incident must have occurred in the same county or the parties must live in the same county.

Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton acknowledged that the proposal addresses a problem that needs fixing, but took issue with what he believes to be unintended consequences.

The proposal would break up many potential collective lawsuits into individual cases. Sifton said the provision could lead to clogging the courts with even more lawsuits and change the dynamic of where cases are tried.

Sifton, an attorney who is considering a run for governor in 2020, launched an overnight filibuster last month in order to buy time to compromise. Democrats took turns holding the floor throughout the early morning hours as members of the minority party argued that the provisions will deter those seeking joint lawsuits by making the process inconvenient and more expensive.