Legislative highlights 2026

An incredibly difficult year of which we can all be extremely proud

2026 October

The 2025-2026 legislative session ended the first week of September. 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 that 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; 
• A $150,000 cap on non-economic damages for smoke and ash damage cases; 
• 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.

While the legislative session has ended for the year, the CAOC mission to protect the rights of your clients and the integrity of the civil justice system continues in our political work leading up to the November election. Many of the issues that CAOC defeated this year promise to return next year, this time with many new faces joining the Legislature. As our last submission to CAALA highlighted, the tech world has awakened to the power of the California Legislature and has unleashed their first round of offense through historically massive candidate spending, much of which targets the politically complex landscape of the LA region.

Our window to match their influence before the election is now. 

There are multiple ways for CAALA members to get involved in the political work CAOC does, regardless of where you are in your career and what resources you have at your disposal:

Help us reach our goal of sending handwritten, personal notes thanking legislators who stood up for your clients during the 2026 legislative session. 

We want pro-consumer legislators to know that we see their hard work. Just one example of courage this session that we want to express gratitude for: amidst intense pressures from every side, South LA and Culver City legislator Asm. Isaac Bryan was stalwart in standing with survivors of devastating wildfires. [Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get involved.]

Join our CAOC Grassroots Committee and become part of creating long-term relationships with candidates and legislators that educate and inform them about who the law affects and how it plays out in everyday people’s lives. 

Trusted relationships make the difference when powerful propaganda is in play. Longtime grassroots relationships with Pasadena and Altadena legislator Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez meant that she knew who to ask about any legal nuances while she was fiercely fighting for the rights of wildfire survivors. [Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get involved.]

Join the phone bank corps, raising awareness throughout the community of the work our political program does and raising the funds we need to ensure that the new legislators are ones that will work for the people, not for corporate stakeholders. 

Many plaintiff attorneys in the California legal community still may not have full awareness of what CAOC does to protect their practice and the rights of their clients. Your outreach can spread the word on the urgent matters that are on the line and bring in the support to continue the political and legislative work CAOC has been doing for decades. [Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to join the phone bank corps.]

Stand up to Big Tech’s influence over our elections by donating to the CAOC Political Program. 

When legislators waver on consumer rights, it opens the flood gates to the erosion of democracy overall. Strong relationships with legislators start while they’re candidates. Help us elect candidates like: 

• John Erickson in West Hollywood, who’s spent his career improving the lives of everyday people, and who is up against a tech-funded millionaire in November. 
• Deborah Klein Lopez in Agoura Hills, who has a record of using public funds to create robust public safety plants to prevent abuse and harm before it happens. 

[Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to find out about current fundraising.]

In a year of immense challenges and existential threats, we’ve seen CAALA members of every stripe – from law students, to legal staff, to new lawyers, to seasoned attorneys – join in CAOC’s work of protecting the civil justice system. We hope you’ll join us for this next phase of political work, which happens year-round. We need you! 

The CAOC advocates, including CEO Nancy Drabble, Political Director Lea-Ann Tratten, Policy Director Jacquie Serna, General Counsel Saveena Takhar and myself, along with our political team of Natalie Robertson and Samantha Helton, want to thank you for your support during this difficult year.