Passing AB 35: Fairness for Injured Patients Act

I wanted to avenge my mother's death so I tracked down the negligent plastic surgeon who killed her. Right before I reached out to him, I found out he died. Without an enemy, I found it difficult to have closure around my mother's passing. I was distraught because the surgeon didn't have medical malpractice insurance when we tried to sue him so he walked away, never paying my family a dime. At the time of my mother's death in 1996, the California medical malpractice cap was at $250,000, meaning it didn't matter how gross the damages were--that was the value of a life and that amount hasn't changed since 1975, never adjusting to inflation. I began working with advocacy group Consumer Watchdog on a campaign to increase medical malpractice caps to change the incentives for lawyers to represent low-income patients and for bad apple doctors to take more accountability. In June 2022, AB 35 Fairness for Injured Patients Act was approved, increasing medical malpractice caps to $1M over time.

Read the full story about me and my family here.