Nick and Courtney Rowley

Proponents of the Fairness for Injured Patients Act, including Consumer Watchdog board member Scott Olsen, withdrew the initiative measure that spurred today’s legislative compromise from the ballot in response to the legislative compromise. The Fairness Act had qualified for the November California 2022 ballot with funding from Nick Rowley, an attorney who lost his own son to medical negligence.

Nick Rowley, a trial attorney that helped author and contributed funding in support of the measure, said taking the legislative route through Assembly Bill 35 secures a cap increase for patients and their families. The legislation would allow for multiple caps — one for a medical institution and for a provider, for example. That means that in a case not involving a death, a patient could potentially hold multiple parties liable and receive more than $350,000, Rowley said. 

“In 2022 it will be 47 years since the value of human life and catastrophic injury was capped at $250,000,” said prominent trial attorney Nick Rowley, a financial backer of the initiative. Nick lost a son to malpractice. “After statutory costs and attorneys’ fees I have seen entire families whose son, daughter or mother was killed by egregious negligence end up with the equivalent of $35,000 as full civil justice for the negligent killing of their loved one because of the cap never being adjusted for inflation.  California’s 1975 law discriminately under-compensates victims and families who are black, Hispanic, and Asian all to the benefit of the rich and powerful white privilege and for multi-billion-dollar insurance corporations and the California politicians they give their money to.  The existence of this law shows that California politics is deeply seeded with corruption.”

We just recorded the podcast with the main financial backer of the Fairness Act, Nick Rowley, to talk about Russ, the campaign and how it will be won.