President’s Message
The Work You Did Not See By Douglas Saeltzer
Our members measure a year in verdicts. This year, the most consequential work done on behalf of our clients happened in rooms with no gallery, no court reporter, and no jury. One legislator told me that in thirty-six years in and around the Capitol, he had never seen a session that mattered more to CAOC members and to victims. He was not talking about what passed. He was talking about what almost did. Let me be candid about something uncomfortable. We have lost the narrative with many legislators. We do not walk into those offices as the people who stand between an injured child and the institution that failed her. We walk in as trial lawyers. That impression is being actively constructed: in August, a coalition of more than two hundred public agencies told the Legislature in writing that plaintiffs' firms are the single largest beneficiaries of the system, and that Californians pay a "lawsuit tax" on nearly everything they buy. What reached print this year was no adjustment at the margins. One measure would have rewritten the Government Claims Act top to bottom: a $250,000
cap on noneconomic damages and $500,000 on economic damages against public entities, a blanket immunity for any injury arising from a "governmental function," including funding, staffing and oversight decisions, and several rather than joint liability for economic damages. Alongside it came sweeping limits on wildfire survivors' claims, new restrictions on construction defect recovery, and a broad push for damage and fee caps in both public entity and child sexual abuse cases. Read that against your own inventory. The pedestrian killed by a city vehicle. The student assaulted by a coach the district had been warned about. None of the caps became law. The blanket immunity did not survive. The broadest wildfire proposals collapsed before the deadline. That was not luck. It was five people who read every bill and every amendment, who knew which member would take a call on a Sunday, who could explain in ninety seconds why "several liability" means a paralyzed nineteen- year-old collects nothing, and who built a coalition that included the ACLU, Consumer Watchdog, the Youth Law Center and over 50 other groups so legislators heard the argument from voices beyond our own. Nancy Drabble, our CEO, oversaw all of it, as she has overseen every fight this organization has had for decades. Nancy Peverini, our Legislative Director. Lea Ann Tratten, our Political Director. Saveena Takhar, our General Counsel. Jacquie Serna, our Policy Director.
Douglas S. Saeltzer is the 2026 CAOC President. He is a shareholder with Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger whose main office is in San Francisco, CA. Doug focuses on resolving large cases on behalf of seriously injured people by way of trial or settlement.
dsaeltzer@walkuplawoffice.com
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Consumer Attorneys of California
FORUM September/October 2026
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