Chorus of Reformers Adds New Pitch Tort Critics Now Focus on Limiting Damages and Establishing Clear Guidelines for Product-Liability Cases Series: BUSINESS GOES TO COURT. Part One of a 2-Part Series. Second of 5 Articles Appearing Today

Max Boot, writer of The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor

DAN QUAYLE may be gone from the political scene but one of his favorite issues - reforming the nation's legal system - remains on the front-burner.

Much of the action recently has been on the state level. With King Kong-sized medical-malpractice and product-liability judgments getting wide publicity, most legislatures have passed some form of "tort reform" since the late 1980s.

More than two dozen states have changed "joint and several liability" rules, which have been used to force wealthy plaintiffs who were only minimally responsible for some harm to pay almost all of the jury award. Another 21 states have changed the "collateral source" rule, which says that …

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Publication information: Article title: Chorus of Reformers Adds New Pitch Tort Critics Now Focus on Limiting Damages and Establishing Clear Guidelines for Product-Liability Cases Series: BUSINESS GOES TO COURT. Part One of a 2-Part Series. Second of 5 Articles Appearing Today. Contributors: Max Boot, writer of The Christian Science Monitor - Author. Newspaper title: The Christian Science Monitor. Publication date: January 25, 1994. Page number: 12. © 2009 The Christian Science Publishing Society. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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