President’s Message
It was not a clean sweep. As it now stands, pending signature by the Governor, we gave ground in two places. The child sexual abuse compromise imposes a heightened evidentiary burden on survivors over forty. And a public entity must now be found more than 15 percent at fault before it is jointly and severally liable for economic damages. But in light of the threats, it was a clear victory for victims.
Keep in mind, this threat does not expire. It returns in January with better sponsors and a longer list of signatures. When our legislative team asks you for a client story, for testimony, for a call to your representative, understand what you are being asked to support. Not an abstraction. The five people standing between that agenda and your clients. Thank you to them, and to all of you.
Legislative Update
By Nancy Peverini
The 2025-2026 legislative session ended this first week of September, 2026. What a whirlwind. What a year. What a massive effort to protect our clients and our profession. What a win. A final legislative report will be completed in time for CAOC’s November convention, but I wanted to share the highlights of this extraordinarily challenging year. Your legislative advocates are extremely proud to say that, with the help of CAOC’s tremendous leadership, we successfully defeated multiple tort reform attempts, including: Negotiations which led to the withdrawal of the Uber initiative, which would have imposed attorney fee caps and limited access to medical care; A $510,000 non-economic damage cap for all public entity cases and childhood sexual assault cases; An attempt to require that a public entity be found more than 75% at fault for joint and several economic damages to apply;
Fee caps for plaintiffs in fire cases;
Limits on the right to bring a private action under the California Invasion of Privacy Act; and,
Severe limits on the rights of homeowners to sue for construction defects.
The CAOC advocates (Nancy Drabble, CEO, Lea- Ann Tratten, Political Director, Jacquie Serna, Policy Director, Saveena Takhar, General Counsel and me, Nancy Peverini, Legislative Director) want to thank you for your support during this difficult year.
A $150,000 cap on non-economic damages for smoke and ash damage cases’
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Consumer Attorneys of California
FORUM September/October 2026
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