Mai Chi Nguyen v. Los Angeles County Harbor

The parties call on us to decide two separate but related issues: (1) May a final judgment providing for periodic payments of future damages be amended at the request of the plaintiff to require a cash advance against future damages in the amount necessary to pay her attorney fees? (2) In determining the maximum attorney fees allowable under MICRA, 1 how should the trial court calculate the “total value” of periodic payments of future damages? We have concluded the trial court cannot amend the final judgment in this case to alter the schedule of periodic payments of damages *1440 in order that plaintiff’s attorney can recover his fees immediately. We have further concluded that for purposes of calculating the maximum attorney fees allowable under MICRA the “total value” of periodic payments is the present value of the product of the periodic payments multiplied by the number of years remaining in the plaintiff’s life expectancy.

Facts and Proceedings Below

At the age of eight months, Mai Chi Nguyen underwent a hip arthrogram at the Los Angeles County Harbor/UCLA Medical Center. Professional negligence in performing this procedure caused Ms. Nguyen to suffer full…