36 Years Later.

A jury awarded the plaintiff $6,000,000 non-economic damages in a medical malpractice case and the trial court reduced the award to $250,000.00, pursuant to Civil Code §3333.2, passed as part of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, (MICRA), in 1975.  Plaintiff appealed, claiming the reduction violated her rights to equal protection and to a jury trial.  She says there was no medical malpractice insurance crisis when the act was passed and, besides, $250,000.00 does not have the same purchasing power as it did those many decades ago.  The Court of Appeal affirmed, noting that no one has a vested right in a measure of damages.  Basically the court told the plaintiff to go pound on the Legislature’s door.  Stinnett v. Tam   (Cal. App. Fifth Dist.; September 1, 2011) 198 Cal.App.4th 1412, [130 Cal.Rptr.3d 732].