The bills, would have boosted the cost of health care, made it harder for judges to dismiss frivolous lawsuits, and devastated the initiative voters passed in 1996 to attack the problem of uninsured motorists.

The bills died in Sacramento this week, failing to get the required votes for full Assembly approval by the January 31 deadline for "two-year" bills to pass out of their house of origin.

"Trial lawyers lobbied the Legislature hard for many months to get their bills passed. Their plan was to build opportunities for more and bigger lawsuits in a number of areas," said John H. Sullivan, president of the Civil Justice Association of California.

"Every legislator who hung tough and put consumers and taxpayers first deserves commendation."

Prominent bills which died this week are:

AB 250 (Kuehl): This bill was designed to eliminate the $250,000 pain and suffering damages in the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), a two-decade old law which has become a national model for holding down health care costs.

AB 1109 (Escutia): By restoring a discredited 1970's court ruling, this bill would reduce an insurer's ability to detect fraud and let lawyers drive up insurance costs by routinely suing for punitive damages in every insurance claim. The bill would dramatically increase court caseloads and carve a huge loophole in Proposition 213, which the voters overwhelmingly passed in 1996 to help control auto insurance costs and the spread of uninsured drivers.

AB 1324 (Escutia): This bill would have weakened a judge's ability to dismiss frivolous lawsuits at an early stage and tilted court procedures in favor of trial lawyers.

AB 1486 and AB 1487 (Floyd): These two bills, introduced last year at the behest of Proposition 211 sponsor Bill Lerach's law firm, would have given lawyers bigger attorneys fees in lawsuits brought under the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and unfairly targeted life insurers by permitting fraud without showing that anyone was mislead.