Two cars, one driven by "Sam" and the other by "Mary," collide at an intersection. Dissatisfied with the insurance settlement offered, Mary sues Sam, alleging that the collision was his fault and demanding compensation for damage to her automobile and minor physical injuries.
That hypothetical case is the most elemental form of the "tort system." At the other end of the scale, large firms of lawyers generate massive class-action lawsuits against corporations alleging some forms of misconduct and demanding many millions of dollars in damages.

Whether simple auto accident or class-action megasuit, however, it's all a game that involves billions of dollars. And the rules of the game -- defining potential causes of action, imposing limits on damage awards, declaring who might be liable -- are political decisions, so those who play it also wage perpetual war in the Capitol.
Each year, personal injury attorneys, business and professional groups and insurance companies joust over bills that would either expand or restrict opportunities to sue and collect damages, spending millions of dollars in lobbying fees and campaign contributions. And for the most part, the tort warriors have battled to a stalemate. Each side has made minor gains, but neither has achieved a breakthrough for nearly three decades, ever since medical care providers and insurers got a strict cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases.

A big factor in the stalemate has been that from 1983 to 1999, the Legislature was in the hands of lawyer-friendly Democrats while the governorship was controlled by pro-business Republicans. Democrat Gray Davis won the governorship in 1998, but was cool to lawyers' demands as he courted business support. Davis acceded ever-so-slightly to lawyer pressure in 1999 by signing legislation that would allow suits against insurers for "bad faith" handling of claims -- a means to pressure them into making more favorable settlements in underlying cases. But at Davis' insistence, the bill was diluted to exclude lucrative suits against business, and insurers easily overturned the law in a 2000 referendum.

Consumer Attorneys of California, the chief lobbying arm for personal injury lawyers, was slow, meanwhile, in adjusting to the rapidly changing culture of the Capitol wrought by term limits and a status quo redistricting plan. The lawyers continued to pump big money into the coffers of Democratic legislative leaders, expecting them to deliver the votes, even though the leaders' powers had been diminished sharply.

The lawyers, however, changed their tactics in 2002, joining other liberal interest groups in playing in Democratic primaries for legislative seats that were falling vacant due to term limits, and emerged with much friendlier Democratic majorities. The Capitol's leftward shift has emboldened lawsuit lawyers to push a much more ambitious agenda this year. Bills backed by trial attorneys and/or their allies to create new causes of action or otherwise make it easier to sue and collect have proliferated, and a number of them seem to be heading to Davis' desk.

The most public of the tort war skirmishes is over whether "unfair business practices" suits should be restricted in the wake of a scandalous situation in which thousands of small businesses, many owned by immigrants, have been sued or threatened with suits by law firms that offer to drop the actions in return for payments.

State authorities have cracked down on the most active of the law firms, but the Legislature has killed bills aimed at restricting such suits and, instead, is moving legislation that would actually make it easier to collect on "unfair business practices" actions. A key lawyer-backed bill on the issue moved through the Assembly last week only after lobbyists, working out of Speaker Herb Wesson's office, pressured a few moderate Democrats to vote for it.

The key factor in this year's version of tort war will, as usual, be the governor. Trial lawyers have contributed nearly $10 million to candidates for the Legislature and statewide office in the last two years, virtually all of it going to Democrats, and Davis will need a lot of money if he does, in fact, face a recall election.