ng argued that the rising cost of malpractice insurance may result in the inaccessibility of basic health care services to average citizens. These concerns, and a changing political landscape, have precipitated a marked increase in the number of existing and proposed legislative tort reform measures, both at the state and federal levels (The current tort climate, 1996).
The tort reform movement began in the 1970s in the area of medical malpractice. This was followed by a broader tort reform movement which began in the 1980s, and which continues up until the present, that includes product liability, construction litigation, negligence claims, and professional liability suits.
Tort reform measures include caps on non-economic and punitive damages, elimination of joint liability, "loser pays" rules with respect to attorneys' fees, sliding-scale contingency fee arrangements for claimants' lawyers, modification of evidentiary rules concerning the admission of scientifi
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