Tort or personal injury law has a long history in our legal system.
Personal injury laws trace back hundreds of years to English Common Law and were a remedy for people who were harmed by another.
The founding fathers supported tort law and wrote it into the Constitution as a means of protecting citizens against negligence and harmful acts.
What the heck is tort reform? In America today we often hear politicians championing tort reform, but what is tort reform?

Legislative limits or changes or judicial reform of the rules governing medical malpractice lawsuits and other lawsuits.
Tort simply refers to law suit.
Reform implies that limits can be placed on individual rights to sue or on the amounts or situations for which they can seek relief.
Tort is considered to be by some as the primary cause of the rising costs of health care.
Reform, then, would lower health care costs..
...
patient advocates are against tort reform, claiming that the health care industry and managed care industries require monitoring and that law suits keep health care providers and payers in check...

The American Tort Reform Association ( ATRA ) wants to eradicate the contingency fee arrangement in personal injury cases in states.
Typically, attorneys do not ask for upfront fees and are paid only if they win a personal injury settlement for their clients.
Contrary to popular opinion, contingency fees are not about attorney greed, but are to help injured people not go further into debt to receive decent legal assistance.
By offering contingency fee arrangements, personal injury lawyers can help injured individuals receive compensation without adding to their financial woes.
However, ATRA wants to wipe out the contingent fee system and replace it with hourly rates paid up front.
If ATRA is successful in its goals, the change could adversely affect claimants by:

• Denying legal representation to those in financial straits
• Enable corporations to avoid financial responsibility for negligence
• Forcing injured individuals into insurmountable debt

Personal injury laws are meant to help individuals who have sustained injuries through another's wrongdoing-whether negligently or intentionally harmful.