When will Appellate Courts Stop Avoiding what is Right for Medical Malpractice Victims?
On May 12, 2009, the 5th District Court of Appeal heard oral arguments in the most recent challenge to California’s unfair and antiquated 34 year-old cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases in Van Buren v. Evans, FO54227. Less than 4 weeks later, in an unpublished opinion, it upheld the validity of the antiquated, repressive and unconstitutional scheme. Counsel for the injured victim, Robert Peck, of the Center for Constitutional Litigation (CCL) in Washington, D.C., asked that the three-justice panel to strike down the 34 year old artificial restriction on the common law rights of negligence victims, contending it violates the right to a jury trial and equal protection. Correctly pointing out that whatever “crisis” may have existed in the mid-1970s when the Legislature approved the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act has long since passed, Plaintiff James Van Buren asked the appellate panel to restore the full measure of damages awarded him by a Merced County
