Tort reform refers to proposed changes in common law civil justice systems that would reduce tort litigation or damages. Tort actions are civil common law claims first created in the English commonwealth system as a non-legislative means for compensating wrongs and harm done by one party to another's person, property or other protected interests (e.g. physical injury or reputation, under libel and slander laws). Tort reform advocates focus on personal injury common law rules in particular.

In the United States tort reform is a contentious political issue. US tort reform advocates propose, among other things, procedural limits on the ability to file claims, and capping the awards of damages. Supporters of the existing tort system, including consumer advocates, argue that reformers have mis-stated the existence of any real factual issue and criticize tort reform as disguised corporate welfare.,

In Commonwealth countries as well as U.S. states including Texas, Georgia and California, the losing party must pay court costs of the opposing party.

Leon Smith (born November 2, 1980 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American professional basketball player. He has played in the NBA, the CBA, the USBL and the IBL, and abroad in Puerto Rico and Argentina.

Smith was raised in a foster home, called Lydia Children's Home, as a ward of the state of Illinois due to neglect from his parents when he was five years old.

Smith was selected out of Chicago's Martin Luther King High School by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round (29th overall) of the 1999 NBA Draft and was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the draft rights to Gordan Giriček and a second-round pick in the 2000 NBA Draft. However, in subsequent months he suffered numerous psychological problems, and was released in February 2000 without ever playing a game for the Mavericks. A month previous, Smith was released from a psychiatric ward to where he was committed for several weeks, after an incident in which he threw a rock through a car window and swallowed approximately 250 aspirin tablets.

For others by this name, see John Burris (disambiguation).

John Leonard Burris (born May 8, 1945) is an American civil rights attorney, based in Oakland, California, known for his work in police brutality cases representing plaintiffs.

He briefly represented Rodney King in his suit against the Los Angeles Police Department and is most recently noted for filing a civil suit over the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant. Burris also represented controversial basketball star Latrell Sprewell. Burris has appeared as a legal commentator on MSNBC, CNN, and other cable and local television networks.

Burris received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley School of Law) in 1973, worked for Chicago law firm Jenner & Block out of law school, and became a member of the California bar in 1976. Burris's work in police brutality cases began in 1979 when he was an investigator in the district attorney's office working on the case of the killing of 14-year-old Melvin Black. Burris's 1999 book, Blue vs. Black, is about the problem of police brutality against African-Americans.

Jeffrey Segal (born 1 August 1920) is a British actor.

He made his first screen appearance, as an extra, in the film Jud Süß (1934). From the early 1960s onwards he appeared in many British TV series, notably Callan, Z-Cars, The Protectors, Terry and June, The Pallisers and Dad's Army.

He played the part of 'Arthur Perkins' in children's comedy series Rentaghost, a hotel guest - whose name was given, although this is never mentioned in dialogue, as Mr Heath in the credits; a hen-pecked husband and father of a babied spoiled brat - in the "Gourmet Night" episode of Fawlty Towers, and a civil servant in an episode in Yes Minister.

In the mid-1980s he appeared in the mini-series of Oliver Twist and Vanity Fair, and most recently in an episode of Jonathan Creek.

John Anthony Barrasso III (pronounced /bəˈrɑːsoʊ/; born July 21, 1952) is the junior United States Senator from Wyoming and a member of the Republican Party. He was appointed to the Senate following Craig L. Thomas's death and won a special election in 2008 to fill the remaining four years of Thomas's term.

Barrasso was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1952, the son of Louise M. (née DeCisco) and John Anthony Barrasso, Jr. He is of Italian descent. He is a 1970 graduate of Central Catholic High School in Reading, PA. Barrasso began his college career at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where he became a member of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity) and transferred to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., graduating with a bachelor of science degree in 1974. He also received his M.D. degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1978. He conducted his residency at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut.

In addition to his private orthopedic practice, Barrasso was Chief of Staff of the Wyoming Medical Center, State President of the Wyoming Medical Society, President of the National Association of Physician Broadcasters, and a member of the American Medical Association Council of Ethics and Judicial Affairs.