Cash payments in California medical malpractice cases would go up for the first time in nearly five decades under a deal between rival interest groups announced Wednesday that avoids a costly battle at the ballot box in November. Gavin Newsom before June 28 — the deadline for removing a related measure from the Nov. 8 statewide ballot. The deal reached after several weeks of intense negotiations between attorneys and doctors groups would raise the legal cap on pain and suffering awards to $350,000 beginning Jan. 1. Efforts to increase the malpractice cap in 2014 almost became the first test of the new ballot measure rules, but a compromise failed and a MICRA overhaul ballot measure, Proposition 46, was overwhelmingly rejected by voters. Neither of those agreements, though, represented a political and public policy divide that was as fierce or long-lasting as the debate over the cap on medical malpractice awards.

Source: Los Angeles Times April 28, 2022 01:15 UTC