Prince

We hold that an unlicensed social worker, registered with the appropriate agency and working toward licensure, is a “health care provider” rendering “professional services” under the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 (MICRA).

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs are the widow and daughters of decedent James Prince, who killed himself after his release from a medical facility. They sued two sets of defendants for improperly releasing decedent. Decedent had health coverage with the first group (Kaiser). Kaiser subcontracted mental health services to Sutter Health Central, which employed Juliet Stevenson, who allegedly made the decision to release decedent (Sutter, except as context indicates).

Plaintiffs settled with Kaiser for their economic damages and for the maximum $250,000 in noneconomic damages permitted by MICRA. They continued the suit against Sutter, claiming that Stevenson’s acts did not fall under MICRA and therefore they could recover further noneconomic damages from Stevenson and her employer, Sutter.

Plaintiffs moved for summary adjudication of the MICRA issue and the trial court ruled against them. After plaintiffs conceded that the MICRA issue would…