Supreme Court of California

In this medical malpractice case involving a jury’s award of noneconomic damages that was reduced by the court to $250,000 under the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), the judgment of the Court of Appeal finding that a further reduction setting off the amount of a pretrial settlement attributable to noneconomic losses is required by the MICRA cap is reversed, where: 1) the Legislature sought to address the problem of unpredictable jury awards with MICRA, and the limitation on noneconomic damages restrains settlements indirectly by providing a ceiling on potential liability as a basis for negotiation; and 2) only noneconomic damages awarded in court are actually capped.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/15/2014
• Published 12/16/2014

Judges

• Corrigan

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel