Consumer Watchdog

Fairness Act

Fairness Act

The father of a 30-year-old man disabled for life by medical negligence when he was two, and the parents of a young girl with life-long disabilities who await their daughter’s medical negligence trial, have qualified the Fairness for Injured Patients Act (FIPA) for the November 2022 California ballot.

Californians harmed by medical negligence can’t get justice because of a cap set in 1975 by the state legislature that limits compensation for lost quality of life and wrongful death, and has never been updated.

The cap hurts every Californian, but disproportionately harms Black, Hispanic and Indigenous people, low-income patients, women, and children.

Meet campaign chair Charles Johnson, whose wife Kira died after giving birth when her bladder was cut and her complaints of pain were negligently ignored for 10 hours.

Kira Johnson

The Fairness for Injured Patients Act (FIPA) would adjust the maximum $250,000 compensation cap for inflation, allows judges and jurors to decide that compensation above the cap is appropriate in certain cases of catastrophic injury or death, and requires that juries be informed about the existence of the cap. 

Meet FIPA proponent Scott Olsen and his 30-year-old son Steven, who has permanent brain damage from medical negligence when he was two.

Scott Olsen

Meet FIPA proponents Nelson and Bree Moreno and their daughter Mia, who has cerebral palsy and will never be independent due to medical negligence.

Mia

Meet more patients denied justice in California because of the 45-year-old limits on patient rights.

Steven Olsen

633,000 Signatures For Russ Kussman and Steven Olsen

10 months ago By Jamie Court

We have now collected more than 633,000 signatures for the Fairness For Injured Patients Act -- which will adjust the 1975 cap on compensation for injured patients.

We expect to finish collecting signatures at the end of March to qualify the ballot initiative for the November California ballot.

I want to share with you two events this weekend that brought home for me the imperative of this effort.

FIPA logo

Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Supporters of the Fairness for Injured Patients Initiative Announce 307,000 Signatures Collected

12 months ago By carmen balber

Los Angeles, CA -- Supporters of the Fairness for Injured Patients Act announced today that in just five weeks they have gathered 307,000 of the petition signatures needed to qualify the initiative measure for the November 2020 ballot. The group also notified the Secretary of State that they have passed the 25% signature threshold, triggering a requirement that the Legislature hold a public hearing about the measure.

CA’s $250,000 Compensation Cap Set in 1975 is Most Regressive in America

20 states plus Washington, DC have no cap on noneconomic damages.

      - These include progressive states such as New York, Washington, and Connecticut as well as conservative states like Alabama, Wyoming, and Kentucky.

California is 1 of just 3 states with a cap as low as $250,000 with no exceptions. $250,000 is the lowest cap in the country. (Montana and Texas are the other two)

In just 2019, 3 states either overturned their caps or adjusted them for inflation.

Sugar Shane Slider

Medical Negligence Survivors Launch Nov 2020 Ballot Measure Signature Drive For Proposal To Raise 1975 Compensation Cap That Was Never Adjusted

1 year ago By Jamie Court

Sacramento, CA -- Medical negligence survivors and advocates for a proposed ballot measure launched a petition signature drive for the Fairness for Injured Patients Act (FIPA), which will adjust the compensation cap imposed on injured patients by Sacramento politicians in 1975 that has never been adjusted.   

Juries are not told of the cap and injured patients cannot receive more than $250,000 for their quality of life and wrongful-death survivor damages, no matter how serious the injury or severe the medical negligence.

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