California Voters Refuse to Increase Medical Malpractice Cap

Posted By Mitchell Law Firm | Posted on: Apr 10, 2015

Posted In: Blog, Medical Malpractice

On November 4, 2014, Californians awesomely casted their votes against Proposition 46, a proposal that would have increased a cap on medical malpractice rewards and demanded standard drug and alcohol testing for hospital physicians. The high-spending conflict over Proposition 46 set two special-interest organizations in the state against each other: physicians and attorneys.

Attorneys in the state had long tried to increase California’s $250,000 malpractice cap established by the state’s 1975 Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act. The cap is close to the low point amid the thirty-five states that have some maximum for such compensation. Proposition 46 backers claimed the present amount was obsolete, causing it to be difficult to take cases to court. The measure would have increased the cap to $1.1 million and permitted for inflation modifications.

The state’s medical and hospital associations contested the measure and disapproved of putting malpractice alterations together with the physician drug-testing necessity. Challengers stated the campaign for the proposal was ambiguous. In addition, the proposal consistent of a third challenger: demanding medical professionals to verify patients’ prescription-drug histories against a state database.