Final Hearing Date on Ken Stoller’s Writ Set for July 23rd

Final Hearing Date on Ken Stoller’s Writ Set for July 23rd

We took the first available hearing date for the actual hearing on Ken’s Stoller’s writ of administrative mandate, and the hearing will be on Friday, July 23rd at 10:00 AM. Usually, on these final writ decisions, the judge will issue a tentative decision, the day before the hearing, the loser gets to try to convince the judge why he’s wrong.

The judge did issue a new decision on the stay but he didn’t change his mind. Here is the final order denying the stay. Dr. Stoller order

Even apart from the stay order and my extensive conversation with him where he set out his position on the legal issues, in general, superior court judges are not in the habit of making big, new, and precedential legal rulings. That job is left to the appellate courts. So like with many cases which involve big and novel issues, litigators like me tend to look at the superior court level as a necessary way station.

Based on the facts of the case and existing on-point precedent, I think there is a pretty good chance the appellate court will reverse on the sanction issue. If that happens, the board order gets overturned, and there is a lot I could do with that kind of decision, regardless of the ruling on the two core issues of SB 277 and the CAM law (Bus & Prof. Code Section 2234.1).

So don’t lose heart; the fight continues!

Rick Jaffe

11 thoughts on “Final Hearing Date on Ken Stoller’s Writ Set for July 23rd

  1. Your passion and energy are heartening! I look forward to observing in July. Let’s hope the court provides the correct access information for the public this time. We will be rooting for you!

  2. Press on Mr Jaffe!!! The people are behind you and Dr. Stoller!!

    I Wish, the judge would entertain All the issues that have come from the Zoom at home with kids from this pandemic and take those as lessons to take a pause. Your essentially putting kids now back to Zoom forcing them with this mandate.
    Its a new world and SB277 Needs to be put on HOLD and/or Recall the Gov to help!

  3. Can you explain to me, in layman’s terms what happens next for the schools/parents? If the writ goes unfavorably and his license is suspended, do the schools somehow get notified of this and then the office staff searches through student files to pull the children from school? Or is there a different procedure? This July date is about 2 weeks before school starts up for the next school year… mine is entering High School so I don’t know what the office staff is like at the new school, how on the ball they are….

    Thank you for all your hard work!

    1. grandfathered medical exemptions are only good for the grade span for which they were written, during the time the child was in that grade span. So if your child is entering a new school and grade span, like high school, a previously written ME would not be effective regardless of who wrote it and regardless of the status of the physician’s medical license.
      There is no central filing of grandfathered medical exemptions and the school would have to find out that the physician writing had disciplinary action against him/her for ME’s written in the same grade span the child is in now and will remain in next school year.

      1. Can you please clarify for me? If my child is currently in the grade span, will this writ if goes unfavorably cause my child to be removed from school immediately if Dr. Stoller is disciplined? Thank you for all your work! Please keep on fighting!

  4. Dr. Stoller has been disciplined; However, since SB 714 removed the requirement in SB 276 that grandfathered ME’s be submitted to the CDPH to be valid, there is no formal mechanism by which physicians who have been disciplined come to the attention of the CDPH or to schools, or at least none that I am aware of. Further, it is or might be arguable under the new law that grandfathered ME’s are not revocable at all upon physician discipline, or at least I have heard that argument made. So it’s all about what a particular school does once it finds out that a physician has been disciplined. Probably not the best idea to ask your school. So the simple of it is that I don’t know what your child’s school will do if it learns of the disciplinary order against any physician. I suspect that smaller private/charter schools that have many ME children will do nothing, while the public schools will not permit ME children of the disciplined doc’s to attend without compliance with the vaccine schedule, if or once they find out. Sorry, that the best I can do, and it’s now clear as mud.

    1. If Dr Stoller wins the Writ, is his revocation reversed and will he be removed from this list? Did he have other MBC disciplines prior to the current one?

      1. The judge denied our request for a stay of the board’s decision because he didn’t think we would be able to show that we will prevail based on the papers we had initially submitted. There is not much more we can say other than to flush some things out. So if your child has an ME written by Dr, Stoller, for future planning purposes, I think it would be prudent to assume the judge is not going to change his mind and the ME’s will still be revoked, so I would suggest you plan and act on that assumption. If there is funding, there will be an appeal to the appellate court, but that will take a year or so.

        1. Here is the applicable provision:
          “4) Medical exemptions issued prior to January 1, 2020, shall not be revoked unless the exemption was issued by a physician or surgeon that has been subject to disciplinary action by the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California.”

          I think that is clear. There is a also a provision that for ME’s done under the new law (done online), doctors who are under a board accusation or are under a probation order, their ME’s granted (assuming the ME’s are approved on the merits) until after the investigation is resolved in the doctor’s favor or the probation is over. However, these two provision only apply to ME’s submitted under the new law and submitted the new law of submitting ME’s online to the CDPH went into effect.
          Here are those two provisions:

          If there is a pending accusation against a physician and surgeon with the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California relating to immunization standards of care, the department shall not accept a medical exemption form from the physician and surgeon unless and until the accusation is resolved in favor of the physician and surgeon.

          (C) If a physician and surgeon licensed with the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California is on probation for action relating to immunization standards of care, the department and governing authority shall not accept a medical exemption form from the physician and surgeon unless and until the probation has been terminated.

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