County Legal Procedures Questioned : Law: Three supervisors urge a review of the system. They want to be kept apprised of major cases following controversial defense tactics in the Chavez malpractice suit.

Three Los Angeles County supervisors called for review of county legal procedures Wednesday following criticism of the county’s defense against a lawsuit brought by a mother who claims her child died of a birth defect that Olive View Medical Center personnel failed to detect.

“I think we have to be fair and just and honest,” Supervisor Ed Edelman said. “I think we have a higher standard than a private company defending itself. Maybe we have to review whether we are meeting that standard . . . or whether we met it this time.”

The county counsel’s office said Tuesday that based on results of a DNA test showing that Patty Chavez and her boyfriend, Reynaldo Ruiz, could be related to the dead child, the county would begin settlement talks in the lawsuit.

Before Tuesday, the private attorney hired by the county, Leonard Torres, had claimed in legal documents that the county was not to blame for the death of Steven Antonio Ruiz because he was not the baby born at Olive View, a county hospital in Sylmar. County officials acknowledged two weeks ago, however, that despite its legal defense--which had cost more than $40,000 by that time--the county had not determined whether the child was Chavez’s.

The supervisors said they initially learned of the switched-baby defense launched by Torres and the other attorneys in media reports. Those reports prompted Supervisor Mike Antonovich to call for an investigation into the case.

In interviews Wednesday, Antonovich, Edelman and an aide to Supervisor Gloria Molina all said that in the future supervisors may want to be apprised of the county’s legal defenses on major cases. Robert Alaniz, Molina’s press deputy, said the supervisor would bring the issue before the board in the next few weeks.

“How did it get this far without us being notified?” Alaniz asked. “Gloria’s concerned about how many other cases there are out there.”

Except in the event of major litigation, supervisors are informed about the county’s legal defense only at the time of settlement, they said, which gives them no opportunity to dispute those positions. The risk, said Edelman, is that the responsibility of a government to its citizens may be lost.

Edelman and Molina also questioned the county’s practice of turning lawsuits over to private attorneys. The county counsel’s office routinely passes medical malpractice suits to private firms and did so when Chavez sued the county last November.

However, Antonovich defended the use of private attorneys as more economical in cases such as Chavez’s, where expertise in areas such as medical malpractice is needed.

“It would be financially a waste of taxpayers’ money to hire full-time experts,” Antonovich said.

Neither Supervisor Deane Dana nor Supervisor Kenneth Hahn could be reached for comment Wednesday, but Dana’s chief deputy, Don Knabe, said the supervisor likely would agree to at least review the procedures, “especially after such a sensitive case.”

Also Wednesday, the attorney representing Chavez said she will resume her lawsuit if the county does not agree to settle for more than the $250,000 maximum for medical malpractice cases in California.

Attorney Aileen Norvell Goldstein accepted the county’s offer to meet before a settlement judge, but she said during a news conference in her Burbank offices that she will ask for an additional, undetermined amount to compensate Chavez for the “emotional distress” caused by the county’s defense tactics.

“Absent a reasonable settlement, this case will go to trial,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve had all the aces.”

At the news conference, Chavez said that if she does receive a settlement from the county, she hopes to invest it or perhaps buy a house.

Chavez appeared more poised before the cameras than she was just weeks ago. Since then, she has had encounters ranging from an interview by CNN’s Larry King to a visit at her Northridge home by reporters from a local Spanish-language television station.

As the cameras rolled, Chavez emphasized that she hoped publicity over her case would help improve county health-care services for the poor.

Said her father, Samuel Chavez, “We want the whole community to be treated better.”