POLICY
The Legal Defense Fund of the California Medical Association is a collection of monies voluntarily contributed by the CMA membership for appropriate litigation costs. These funds shall be administered by the Executive Committee with ratification by the Board of Trustees. The purpose of this fund shall be to provide monetary support in cases, generally brought by our members, which seek to protect or establish important legal rights of physicians. CMA will consider providing assistance only in those cases which reflect those principles and policies which CMA has established, which impact our members in their practice of medicine.

CMA ordinarily does not prosecute or defend lawsuits because of the extraordinary amount of time, effort and money which this activity entails. On occasion, however, CMA does file suit, such as in the case of CMA et al. v. Regents of University of California , CMA's suit which alleges that UCLA has violated the Corporate Practice of Medicine Bar.

CMA attorneys will not do an initial review of the facts of a dispute (e.g., as related in contracts, letters, memoranda, bylaws or other documents) in order to determine whether a particular case has merit or is likely to be successful. Rather we rely on each physician to retain his or her own legal counsel for this purpose and for representation before medical staffs, administrative agencies, and the courts.

OBLIGATION TO REIMBURSE FUND
The CMA Legal Defense Fund is established as a revolving fund. If the Fund is to remain solvent, distributions of money from the Fund must be repaid by a physician who has received assistance, in the event that the physician is successful in the lawsuit and recovers attorneys fees or monetary damages. Accordingly, no distribution will be made until the physician and his or her attorney agree to reimburse the Fund according to this policy. In addition, the physician and his or her attorney must agree to request that the court direct the losing party to make payment of this reimbursement directly to the "CMA Legal Defense Fund." Finally, the physician and his or her attorney must agree that, should the physician retain new counsel, CMA will be notified of this fact in a timely fashion and the new legal counsel will be informed of and bound by the reimbursement agreement.

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE
Because CMA will also want counsel from the local county medical association, the physician seeking assistance should submit a request simultaneously to the local society and to CMA. In requesting assistance, the physician's attorney should write to the county society and to CMA via Catherine Hanson, General Counsel, at CMA headquarters at P.O. Box 7690, San Francisco, CA 94120-7690. The attorney should: describe the legal issues which are presented and how those issues extend or clarify the case law on a matter of interest to physicians generally; reference documentation of specific facts in support of the arguments; and forward copies of all relevant pleadings (including those of the opposition party) and indicate the approximate time frame within which assistance is needed.

LEGAL COUNSEL ACTION
Legal Counsel will review the materials, confer with counsel for the parties as necessary and summarize the issues in a memorandum addressed to the Executive Committee.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND BOARD ACTION
Following a review of the matter, in consideration of CMA's priorities and resources, the Executive Committee shall determine whether to support a particular case and how much assistance to provide. In addition, the Executive Committee will file a report of the matter with the Board of Trustees for ratification by the Board at its next meeting. A yearly report and accounting of this fund shall be made to the Board of Trustees and the House of Delegates.