Los Angeles County supervisors restored a policy Tuesday that makes public many of the memos that county attorneys send supervisors when advising them to settle legal claims that cost the county millions of dollars each year.
The supervisors did not rule out the possibility of making parts of the documents confidential in the future but said they needed a clearer explanation from their top attorney to justify such a move, which would reverse more than a decade of openness.
At the same time, the board approved a $385,000 payout to the parents of infant Brandon Woo, who had alleged that medical staff at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center disfigured their son's upper lip by improperly using a plastic tube to help him breathe.
County lawyers released their memo in that case, the first released since they stopped making the documents public in May. In the memo, Assistant County Counsel Richard K. Mason said county lawyers had found no "breach or departure of the standard care in this case" but recommended a settlement "because medical experts will be unable to offer a non-negligent explanation for the injury."
Mason wrote that the Woos would probably seek damages of nearly $1.2 million if the case went to trial.
The memos are first sent to the county claims board, which has the authority to approve settlements of less than $100,000. In more expensive cases, the claims board makes settlement recommendations to the supervisors.
Some settlements bypass the claims board without the county issuing a public memo. On Tuesday, supervisors unanimously approved a settlement with their former litigation cost manager, Robert E. Nagle, who filed a legal claim against the county after he was fired last year.
County attorneys said they would not release details of the settlement until both sides had signed the final documents.
County lawyers have argued that claims board memos should not be made public because they are attorney-client communications that disclose legal strategies. They noted that other government agencies do not release memos and said that plaintiffs' attorneys have tried to use the documents to extract more money in similar cases.
Supervisor Gloria Molina demanded details about such instances. She also criticized a proposal by the county counsel to give board members detailed memos about settlements while providing the public with summaries.
"The issue is that this is not our money," Molina said. "This is taxpayer money."
