Blog Topic
Medical Malpractice
Mike Kelly and Doris Cheng: MICRA Unfair
Posted by: Spencer Pahlke
May 07, 2008
Our own Mike Kelly and Doris Cheng were recently published in one of California's leading legal publications, the Daily Journal. The title says it all: "An 8.5 Million Dollar Impact on Three Juries Who Were Not Told about the MICRA Cap."
In the last couple years, Walkup lawyers Mike Kelly, Doris Cheng, and Melinda Derish have tried three medical malpractice cases--and they won each time. Mike and Melinda recovered $3.162 million for a teenager who suffered permanent injuries to his leg due to misdiagnoses; Mike and Doris teamed up to win $3 million for parents who had lost their adult son after a doctor overlooked a subdural hematoma; finally, Mike and Doris again joined forces to win a Sonoma County man more than $9 million after doctors failed to treat a spine infection before it caused permanent paralysis. In the face of these horrific injuries, each jury did exactly what was asked of it--to offer appropriate compensation to those who have suffered injuries or lost loved ones. And, by all accounts, the juries did exactly what they were supposed to, awarding these families more than $15 million.
Despite the well-considered opinions of each of these jurors, who collectively spent a few months' time looking at the evidence and arriving at a verdict, these families had 56% of the verdicts taken from them. Why? Because of California's MICRA law.
As Mike and Doris explain in their piece, "In December 1975, California enacted legislation limiting general damages in medical negligence actions to $250,000 regardless of the nature, extent or permanence of the plaintiff's suffering." That means that, in the case of the young man who essentially lost his leg, but has more than 60 years of life in front of him, he can only have $250,000 for the pain he has suffered and will suffer. That comes out to about $4,167 a year, $11.42 a day, or $.48 and hour. Who would ever dream of giving up a leg for $.48 an hour?--no one, and California law shouldn't force that terrible result on people who are injured through no fault of their own.
As you can tell, this gets me a bit exorcised.
Other websites of ours focus on medical malpractice, including Kaiser injuries, birth injuries, and brain injuries. You can also read more about these three cases, particularly the $9 million Sonoma County verdict--that county's largest medical malpractice verdict--in our Spring 2008 issue of FOCUS on Torts.
