Malpractice Law

In his letter (Feb. 2) Dr. Daniel Temianka claims that “malpractice lawyers routinely siphon off one-third to one-half of the awards that are supposed to go to their clients.” In fact, attorney fees in malpractice cases, which are among the most difficult, complex and costly to pursue, are controlled by the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act as follows: 40% of the first $50,000 recovered; 33 1/3% of the next $50,000 recovered; 25% of the next $500,000 recovered; and 15% of any amount in excess of $600,000 recovered. Additionally, MICRA requires that fees be calculated on the net recovery, after deduction of the often substantial amount of costs advanced by the attorney, and not the gross recovery. Therefore, for example, if there is a gross recovery of $1 million (recoverable only in cases of substantial economic damages due to MICRA’s cap on pain and suffering damages of $250,000), with costs of $100,000, the attorney fee will be 20.6% of the gross recovery, a far cry from Temianka’s claim of one-third to 50%.

GARY M. SCHNEIDER

Los Angeles