The issue of where civil lawsuit can be filed or tried is tying up an effort in the State Senate to reform the civil justice system. Backers of tort reform want to end venue shopping – finding the most lucrative circuit court to hear damage cases. Others want to limit medical malpractice judgments which they say will help ease medical malpractice insurance increases. Those and other issues are in the tort reform bill. The House has passed a version. Several alteratives are before the Senate. One says the only place a civil lawsuit can be heard is in the place where the harm is alleged to have happened. Columbia Senator Ken Jacob is opposed to this idea. He has tried to run a broader venue plan, just for health care workers, through the Senate, but has been voted down. Republicans accuse Jacob of trying to filibuster the issue.
