On March 25, 2003 Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee signed the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003. This was Arkansas’ form of tort reform. Tort reform is “alteration in tort infractions that impose some sort of civil penalty as a method of reducing the amount of money that an injured party can receive in tort litigation cases” (businesss dictionary). The Arkansas civil justice system had many changes imposed on it through this act. The first reform that took place was changes in joint and several liability. The act states the following: In any action for personal injury, medical injury, property damage, or wrongful death, the liability of each defendant for compensatory or punitive damages shall be several only and shall not be joint. Each
