Summary:

Stoel Rives attorney Tom Woods discussed in a Law360 article efforts by the California legislature to expand tort recoveries in personal injury cases. On February 24, 2012, California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg introduced Senate Bill 1528, that aims to overturn last year's long awaited California Supreme Court decision in Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions Inc.

The issue in Howell was whether plaintiffs could recover, as a measure of economic damages, the previously negotiated amount that their insurers — and plaintiffs — were not obligated to pay medical providers for treatment. The Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs could not.

Read on to learn more about how the Howell decision fostered fairness and equity given the current state of the law, regardless of what the legislature now says. See how Senate Bill 1528 will result in personal injury litigants paying for economic losses no one ever sustained — hardly a fair result.

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