The legislative debate over SB 447 is a classic battle pitting the plaintiff's bar against defense counsel and their business and medical trade group allies. And so far the plaintiff's bar, citing the pandemic's delays in bringing civil cases to trial, is winning.

The bill sailed through legislative committees and the state Senate this summer with the backing of Democratic majorities. SB 447 is expected to clear an appropriations committee vote Thursday before moving to consideration on the Assembly floor in the next two weeks.

"This is a very substantial change in the law," Mike Belote, a lobbyist for the California Defense Counsel and the Civil Justice Association of California, said during testimony in June before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

"The effect of this will drive up damage awards dramatically," Belote said. "In recent years, with respect to public claims for example, the number [of claims] has grown slightly, but the size of the awards has grown greatly, primarily in the noneconomic area."

Courts can grant plaintiffs who are not expected to live long a so-called preference trial date so they can get their matter heard more quickly. But even priority trials have been delayed in some courts since the start of the pandemic.

"This is an issue of justice in any time, but at this time it's been particularly exacerbated by the COVID pandemic," the bill's author, Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, said in June. "Victims should not suffer because of the system, a system that for whatever reason cannot adjudicate their claims prior to death."

The issue of post-death pain-and-suffering claims has been debated for decades in California. A 1961 report by the California Law Review Commission recommended eliminating the state's statutory ban on successor pain-and-suffering damages. Ensuing legislation that year included that change but lawmakers later dropped the language at the request of insurance companies, according to a May 31, 1961, letter to Gov. Pat Brown from the bill's author, Sen. James Cobey.

The statute has remained intact until now. Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Idaho are the four other states where pain-and-suffering claims die with the plaintiff.

It's unclear how many cases would be affected by SB 447 since there is no single record of how many suits are waiting for trial dates across the state and how many of those include plaintiffs who will not survive to a disposition.

"The number of cases won't be significant," said Peters, "but the meaningfulness of the change will be."

If approved and signed into law, SB 447 would take effect in 2022. In a nod to opponents, the bill includes an expiration clause that will force the Legislature to decide whether to extend the law by 2026 Proposed amendments, not yet introduced, would require courts to track how many successor-damage cases are pursued.