June 29, 2022

Horvitz & Levy has published an AB-35 MICRA Manual Update. As we explained in our May 23 bulletin, AB-35 is compromise legislation that updated MICRA while preserving its salutary purposes. The new MICRA laws will go into effect on January 1, 2023, but we are releasing our AB-35 MICRA Manual Update now so practitioners can use it to prepare for litigation next year.

AB-35 makes significant changes to the MICRA cap on noneconomic damages, updates the contingency fee statute, and makes a minor change to the periodic payments statutes. It also provides further privilege protections for benevolent statements by healthcare providers, but does not affect other MICRA statutes (e.g., collateral source payments, statute of limitations, arbitration).Details regarding these changes are in the relevant sections of the AB-35 MICRA Manual Update. The existing 2022 MICRA Manual will remain available, along with the AB-35 MICRA Manual update, through the end of 2022.