Category: Business - Business Management

MICRA's Impact On Your Medical Malpractice Claim

Author: Mark W. Eisenberg

Unlike other types of injury cases, one claiming to have been seriously
injured as a result of a healthcare provider's negligence will rarely
receive full compensation for their injury. This is because California,
long before President Bush's call for nationwide tort reform in the
area of medical malpractice, enacted legislation limiting your recovery
against medical providers.

California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act or "MICRA" was
enacted in 1975 by the California Legislature in an effort to control
skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance premiums. MICRA's
provisions, found at various sections of the Civil Code, Code of Civil
Procedure and Business Professions Code, was the Legislature's
most ambitious tort reform measure of its time. While purportedly
designed to make healthcare more readily available and affordable, the
effect of this legislation over time has not only been to deprive
Californians quality medical care, but to deny them fair recovery in
the event of malpractice.

Perhaps the most significant provision of MICRA is Code of Civil Procedure
section 3333.2 which limits awards of pain and suffering in medical
malpractice actions to $250,000. Over the last decade there has been
considerable debate about this limitation in that it was established more
than 30-years ago and has never once been increased. When adjusted
for inflation, this $250,000 would equal roughly $864,000 today, however,
MICRA, when enacted, did not contain any provisions that allowed for
increases of the $250,000 cap to account for inflation. It would take
therefore take legislative action and approval by our governor before
this limitation were raised.


Many clients at EISENBERG LAW GROUP have been victims of
medical malpracticeand, as a result, have been rendered quadriplegics,
paraplegics, or otherwise left wheelchair bound and/or brain injured.
Notwithstanding the nature and extent of their injuries and the
dramatic effect their injuries have had upon their lives and the lives
of their loved ones (often responsible for their day-to-day care),
their recovery for pain and suffering has been limited by law to
$250,000. There is no limitation in California on the recovery of
special damages (e.g. medical expenses, loss of earnings, etc.) in a
medical malpractice action however, MICRA does permit a medical
provider, in the event of an adverse judgment, to make periodic
payments on any monetary award over $50,000. [Code of Civil Procedure
section 667.7.] Naturally, this can result in a delay in compensation
to the patient victim.



At EISENBERG LAW GROUP we not only work to achieve the best results and
largest recovery for our malpractice clients, we also employ experts in
rehabilitation, life care planning, economics and structured
settlements to insure that their settlements and awards, even in the
face of legislatively mandated recovery limitations, are sufficient to
provide for their medical needs into the future.