When Los Angeles County businessman Jesus Rodriguez was injured in a 1979 traffic accident, he sued the driver who caused the crash and was awarded $99,000 in damages, based partly on his lost earnings at work. But Rodriguez, who had been in the United States for nearly 20 years, was an undocumented immigrant, and a state appeals court ruled in 1986 that his losses must be based on the far lesser amount he would have earned in his native Mexico.

That’s been the law in California ever since, limiting unauthorized migrants to pennies on the dollar in suits for wrongful injuries and discouraging some of them from filing suit for fear of deportation. Some courts have also interpreted the ruling to limit the immigrants’ damages for medical costs, because those costs would be much less in their country of origin.

But the law is about to change.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill this week, effective next January, that will exclude evidence of a victim’s immigration status in lawsuits for injuries or wrongful death. That means immigrants, legal or not, will be entitled to the same compensation for their injuries as anyone else.

“No longer will those who exploit immigrants be able to hide behind an accidental loophole to avoid accountability,” said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, author of AB2159. The measure passed both houses on votes that mostly followed party lines.

The measure follows other steps California has taken to equalize the status of undocumented immigrants, such as allowing them to obtain drivers’ licenses, pay in-state tuition at state universities and apply to the State Bar to practice law.

It doesn’t mean they can legally apply for a job or take other actions prohibited by federal immigration law. The new state law also doesn’t affect a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the National Labor Relations Board from awarding back pay to undocumented workers who had been wrongfully fired. The court said such payments would conflict with the intent of the immigration law and “encourage future violations.”

But California lawmakers appear to be anticipating changes in federal law, perhaps in the next administration, that would allow large numbers of immigrants to apply for legal status. Until then, most lawmakers have apparently decided, they should be treated as equally as possible.

“This bill corrects an antiquated legal decree that for too long undercut the true meaning of justice in our nation of immigrants,” said Elise Sanguinetti, president of Consumer Attorneys of California, which co-sponsored AB2159 along with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.