The Jacksonville, Arkansas Patriot reports that, although the Arkansas House passed a tort reform bill, the Senate Judiciary Committee has "many concerns" with the bill. Interestingly, the story does not detail any of the concerns.

UPDATE: This post doesn't detail any of the questions or concerns about the bill, either. What's going on here?

Yet another UPDATE: In this story of committee action, the following colloquoy took place:

Sen. Irma Hunter Brown, D-Little Rock, asked them if the Legislature was trying to take away the decision-making authority of juries by abolishing the liability clause.

“Are we saying we no longer trust the courts to make the proper decisions?” Brown asked.

Sen. Jim Luker, D-Little Rock, vice chair of the committee, followed Brown’s line of questioning and asked Harriman why a change was needed in the law. “Why is it all of sudden unfair when it has been fair for 50 years?” asked Luker, the only attorney on the panel.

The answers: Yes, the tort reformers are trying to take away the decision-making authority from the courts and juries. And, it's NOT all of a sudden unfair; Big Insurance just wants us to think it is.