CMA Protects MICRA - Again!
The 5th District Court of Appeal has unanimously upheld the constitutionality of California's landmark Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA). Enacted in 1975, MICRA allows injured patients to collect full economic damages, but limits noneconomic "pain and suffering" damages to $250,000 and caps attorney's fees.
In the case at hand, James Van Buren v. Sian Evans, M.D. and Yosemite Surgery Associates, the trial attorneys argued that MICRA's $250,000 cap on recoverable noneconomic damages deprived Mr. Van Buren of his constitutional rights to a jury trial.
In its ruling, the appellate court agreed with CMA's testimony and rejected each of the trial attorneys' constitutional arguments. As the court noted, the legitimate state interest is to limit medical malpractice insurance costs because without MICRA insurance rates pose "serious problems for the health care system in California, threatening to curtail the availability of medical care in some parts of the state and creating the very real possibility that many doctors would practice without insurance, leaving patients who might be injured by such doctors with the prospect of uncollectible judgments."
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