David Pivtorak, Principal of The Pivtorak Law Firm, said that California could face particularly stringent tort limits under a 2026 initiative. This proposal would cap personal injury contingency fees and restrict referrals. Pivtorak’s statement was made on the social media platform X.
“My liberal personal injury lawyer friends used the boogeyman of tort reform to justify their voting choices for years so it would be absolutely hilarious if deep blue California becomes the most restrictive state in the Union on this front,” said Pivtorak.
The proposed 2026 initiative in California seeks to reform personal-injury lawyer compensation and referral practices. It mandates that plaintiffs receive at least 75% of the recovery, ties medical-billing recoveries to Medicare/Medi-Cal and a national database, and prohibits referral agreements between law firms and medical providers. Although the official text of the initiative has been filed and summarized publicly, it remains in a preliminary status. It has not yet qualified for the November 2026 ballot, pending signature verification and qualification thresholds, according to Ballotpedia. This development is part of an ongoing tort-reform debate in California involving fee caps, referral restrictions, and liability limits.
In California, the average contingency fee for a personal-injury lawyer typically hovers around 33% of the total settlement or award. In many cases, this range is between 33% to 40%, depending on complexity and whether the matter goes to trial. Several consumer-oriented legal-service websites note that if a case proceeds to trial, contingency fees may rise toward the upper end of that range. This aligns with national norms that place typical contingency-fee percentages in the 30-40% band.
A study conducted by Princeton University in 2021 examined the impact of different types of contingency-fee caps. It found that while broad attorney-fee caps across states were generally not associated with large statistically significant reductions in overall state health-spending growth, “hard caps” (rigid percentage limits) were linked to modest decreases in health expenditures within certain provider categories. The research suggests that states without referral or fee restrictions may experience different cost-outcome patterns compared to states imposing strict limits.
Pivtorak is a trial lawyer based in Los Angeles who earned his B.A. from New York University and his J.D., cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School. He is admitted to practice in California and New York and is the founder and principal of The Pivtorak Law Firm, which focuses on plaintiffs’ personal-injury and consumer-class-action litigation. His biography emphasizes his trial work representing injured individuals and class-action plaintiffs.
The Pivtorak Law Firm is a Los Angeles-based plaintiffs’ practice founded by Pivtorak over a decade ago. Its primary office is located at 611 Wilshire Blvd Ste 911, Los Angeles, CA. The firm’s practice areas include personal injury, wrongful death, auto and truck accidents, dangerous property conditions, defective products, dog bites, and individual-rights/anti-discrimination matters. According to publicly available records and directory listings, the firm is recognized as a small-to-mid-sized practice in legal directories such as Super Lawyers.
