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The issue is simply stated. Currently, patients can collect up to $250,000 in pain-and-suffering damages. That level, which came to be known as the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, was determined through heated and intense negotiations between the trial lawyers on one side and insurers and doctors on the other.

For years, the contingency-fee hunting trial lawyers have sought regularly to raise that limit. They failed, largely because succeeding administrations of Republican governors, siding with insurers, rejected the lawyers' efforts.

But the lawyers are trying again, and this time there is a Democrat in the governor's office, Gray Davis, who has strong political ties to the trial lawyers. There is every indication that the MICRA limit may be increased, perhaps even tripled, and both sides are waging intense lobbying campaigns that thus far have received scant public attention.

Capitol insiders say there is little doubt the limit will be boosted. The real issue is how much -- and when.

Proponents, such as Democratic Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica, contend raising the limit is long overdue, if for no other reason than the inflation has whittled away the real-dollar level of the awards. They also say that higher wards will enable patients to get better lawyers to fight on their behalf.

But opponents, including doctors and the insurers who sell them medical malpractice coverage, say the increase would do little more than line lawyers' pockets and force insurers to charge higher premiums.

The dispute has all the earmarks of a major Capitol politcal fight -- including lots of money spent by the participants. But this year, with Davis' election as governor, a new uncertainty has been injected into the battle. In years past, the opponents and their Republican allies in the Legislature could count on a veto by former Govs. George Deukmejian or Pete Wilson. But nobody knows how Davis is going to act when a MICRA bill emerges from the Legislature -- as it is all but certain to do, given Democratic control of both houses -- and reaches his desk.

Publicly, the insurers and doctors are saying little. But privately, they acknowledge that they face a tough political fight. During his election campaign, Davis reportedly assured the trial lawyers that he favored pro-lawyer changes on other major tort issues -- such as bad-faith lawsuits -- and he is expected to be sympathetic to the lawyers in the MICRA fight.

Whether Davis actually will deliver on those promises remains unknown. But the smart money is betting that he will.

As they say in the broadcast world, stay tuned...

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