The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has approved hotly contested amendments to the state’s medical malpractice venue rules that are set to broaden where plaintiffs can file their lawsuits.

The rules, which were first proposed by the high court’s Procedural Rules Committee in 2018, undo a 20-year-old rule change that restricted plaintiffs in medical malpractices cases so that they could only sue their providers in the counties where they received the problematic treatment. The new changes, approved by the justices Wednesday, will allow plaintiffs to sue providers in counties where they regularly do business or have significant contacts.