If I had to do one thing to protect seniors and disabled adults living in long term care in California, I would wind back the clock and stop "tort reform" from passing in California. As you may know, since 1975 cases against "Health Care Providers" in California have been
severely limited by MICRA. (The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act.) This law unfairly capped the recovery of victims, changed the rules of evidence to favor defendants, limited the amount of fees victims lawyers can charge but placed no similar limits on defense lawyers, and gives the defense the
option to pay their verdict over decades
assuming you survive. While the $250,000 limit on non-economic damages may have seemed like a lot of money in 1975, it works out to about $83,000 in today's dollars. The legislature was
supposed to periodically increase the cap, but they never have. Because victims of Elder Abuse and Neglect are not working, they generally have no economic damages. This means, essentially, every patient in every nursing home has a price on their head of $250,000
at most.
Today I read a great piece in the Atlantic Monthly that discusses the horrible result caused by the fact that "tort reform" placed a cap on the victims of the Metrolink train crash that devastated so many families, most of them with some connection to Ventura County. The foreign corporation at fault for this accident has plenty of insurance to cover this claim, but under our "tort reform" they don't need to use it.
Well worth a read, http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/07/the-real-victims-of-tort-reform/242030/
One last thought: Take David's slingshot and give it to Goliath. Now you understand "tort reform".
