Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog

All too often the public does not hear about the detrimental effects tort reform has on the hundreds of thousands of victims whom are injured by medical malpractice each year. Tort reform puts a cap on compensation for victims of medical negligence. The Huffington Post points out the specific case of Lisa Gurley. A court found that the severe brain injury suffered at birth by Lisa’s son, Colin, was caused by a doctor’s negligence. Despite this finding, Nebraska tort reform prevented Lisa and her son from being adequately compensated for his injuries. In fact, they were compensated for just a tiny fraction of what it will cost to care for Colin for the remainder of his life. Now, Medicaid and the Nebraska Medically Handicap Children's program pay for all of Colin’s care. It is grossly unfair that the taxpayers and Colin’s family are paying the astronomical cost of caring for a severely handicapped child while the doctor and the insurance company paid minimally for the medical negligence. The Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin and Perconti are working to protect the rights of catastrophically injured children like Colin and to ensure that there continue to be adequate remedies for injured victims of medical negligence.

Last week, the Illinois Supreme Court reached a landmark decision which ruled that medical malpractice caps are unconstitutional. The Illinois Supreme Court decided that patient’s rights were more prevalent than the needs of the insurance company. They overruled an Illinois statute that capped pain and suffering at $500,000 from a doctor and $1 million from a hospital for negligent medical care. However, many are critical of the important decision recently written.

The Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the health care costs in Illinois suffered a setback due to this decision. The article argues that health care costs are rising and that doctors are leaving this state due to insurance costs. The article also argues that neurosurgeons are leaving Illinois due to the large health care costs and the American Medical Association argues that medical malpractice insurance stabilized as a direct impact of the statue.

Yet, the paper overlooks a number of factors. First, those states with medical malpractice caps historically have a higher insurance rate than those without. Second there is no empirical evidence that doctors leave states without medical malpractice caps. Finally, and most importantly, 98,000 people die every year due to medical error. Advocates should be more concerned with diminishing medical errors than decreasing medical malpractice costs. The Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin and Perconti support the recent Illinois Supreme Court decision. It is not only a decision that coheres with the constitution, but is also one that supports patients’ rights.

Lately, the media has focused on how many of this nation’s Supreme Courts are committing judicial activism. However, the recent decision by the Illinois Supreme Court is evidence that the Illinois Supreme Court can make “non-activist” decisions. They did so by rightfully declaring that the 2005 cap on medical malpractice awards was unconstitutional. Not only does precedent require this decision, it also shows that the Supreme Court can make the right decision for Illinois. By declaring medical malpractice caps unconstitutional, they showed their commitment to patient’s rights. Families rely on court-determined compensation in order to rebuild their life after a devastating medical error. By instituting medical malpractice caps, the legislature tried to take away the judicial branches right to decide. Thankfully, the Illinois Supreme Court brought the decision back to the bench. To read more about the medical malpractice decision, please click the link.

The Illinois Supreme Court showed their support for patient’s rights today by ruling that medical malpractice caps violate the state’s Constitution. The ruling strikes down a statute that would limit awards for noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering. This would be the third time that the Illinois Supreme Court rejected medical malpractice caps. The court told lawmakers that they could not limit the amount of money that a medical malpractice victim could win in court. The Illinois Supreme Court found that the legislature had violated the separation of powers by infringing on the powers of the judiciary. The ruling revolves around the case of a 4 year old victim who was a victim of medical negligence. This medical error caused the girl’s brain damage at birth. This is a landmark case that will help the victims of medical malpractice throughout the state of Illinois. Now that malpractice caps have been lifted, the victims may receive funding that is needed to survive. The lawyers at Levin & Perconti applaud the Illinois Supreme Court for their support of patient’s rights. A victim deserves to be rightfully compensated for their injuries. To read reaction to the important decision, please click the link.

Today, the Illinois Supreme Court handed down a ruling in favor of patients and victims of medical malpractice throughout the state. According to a press release issued by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the Court ruled that medical malpractice caps are unconstitutional in a lawsuit about a young girl who suffered a significant brain injury due to medical negligence. ITLA president, Peter J. Flowers, applauded the Court’s decision, noting it will shift the focus to “meaningful insurance reform” that will cut costs for doctors and patients and will give Illinois residents access to quality care.

The Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti support the Court’s ruling. Medical malpractice laws were designed to protect patients injured through no fault of their own. These laws allow victims to seek fair compensation for a health care provider’s mistakes. We are pleased that the Court ruled to protect patients’ rights to hold doctors and hospitals accountable.

A woman went to the hospital to have her fallopian tubes tied and left with two punctured holes in her bladder. This near-death experience resulted in the woman having chronic pain and a flesh eating virus. The victim couldn’t move, speak and she had no muscle control. Her medical expenses for the process totaled $1.9 million. Medical malpractice lawyers state that if she hadn’t received the settlement she would be homeless or living in public housing. The woman fortunately filed the medical malpractice lawsuit in the state of Iowa where no medical malpractice caps exist, despite the lobbying of the insurance companies. While insurance companies boast that caps will lower the cost of health care, history shows that the medical malpractice caps do not lower insurance rates for doctors or patients. They simply make more money for insurance corporations. Statistics show that malpractice insurance profits are 24 percent higher in states with caps on malpractice damages than in states who do not have medical malpractice caps. Medical malpractice attorneys know the cost of bringing a case to trial, and due to this only take those that are meritorious. This helps dispute the insurance companies argument that medical malpractice suits are too commonplace and that caps are needed to decrease the costs. To learn more about the medical malpractice case, please click the link.

Last month the Illinois Supreme Court decided to delay its ruling on the constitutionality of the Illinois Medical Malpractice Act of 2005. This ruling would determine whether or not medical malpractice caps were legal in Illinois. The issue came before the Court in the 2007 Abigaile Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital case where a Cook County Circuit Court Judge deemed the caps unconstitutional. Attorney Frank Perrecone stated the caps do nothing but injure victims of malpractice claims. He stated that “it’s a one size-fits-all solution on noneconomic damages, and it will affect those victims of medical error who are most seriously injured.” Medical malpractice caps will do nothing to decrease health care costs and will simply injure victims of medical error even further. To look more at opinions about medical malpractice caps, check out the link.

The Vice President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Greg Shevlin recently wrote a letter to the editor concerning the upcoming medical malpractice debate. Currently important legislation is facing the Illinois Supreme Court concerning medical malpractice caps. The case before the Illinois Supreme Court is about a little girl named Abigaile LeBron. This child’s life was forever altered as a result of the medical errors she encountered during her birth. However, there are many that want to cap the amount of damages she can receive in the name of brining down medical malpractice insurance rates. Caps have not lowered malpractice rates for doctors. The answer to fixing our health care situation is insurance reform, not taking away patients’ rights through medical malpractice caps. We must hold the insurance industry accountable for a health care system that is spiraling out of control. To learn more about how medical malpractice caps will injure patient’s rights, contact an Chicago personal injury lawyer.

Recently two health care attorneys called for the Illinois Supreme Court to uphold legislation that placed caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. However, it is obvious that much of their argument consists of long-debunked myths and unsubstantiated claims. The attorneys claimed that doctors are fleeing Illinois due to the malpractice caps. However, the AMA’s own figures show the number of doctors in Illinois steadily increased over the last decade. The numbers also show that there are more doctors per capita in states without caps than those with them. Most importantly, the attorneys fail to speak to the heart of the lawsuit under contention. The victim was born with severe brain damage as the result of medical negligence. The attorneys writing the article forget that Abigaile is a real girl, with real problems. Medical malpractice cases cannot be simplified to a math equation that places an arbitrary value on human suffering. The laws regarding medical malpractice caps must be flexible enough to meet every victim’s needs. This article was published in the Law Bulletin.

The Illinois Supreme Court did not rule on whether the state’s four-year-old medical malpractice reform law will survive, as it was expected to. The next batch of Supreme Court opinions is expected in mid-January. The ruling could directly impact the constitutionality of damage caps for doctors and hospitals. It is being watched closely by the health care industry and employers who see caps on damages as a way to tame rising health care costs. Twice before in state history Illinois lawmakers have adopted caps, and both times the Illinois Supreme Court nixed them. Cook County Circuit Judge Diane Larsen decided that caps on malpractice awards violated the Illinois Constitution’s “separation of powers” clause, stating the legislation can’t interfere with the right of juries and judges to determine fair damages. The first case to test the law is that of a 13-month-year-old girl who suffered severe brain injury during birth. The lawsuit charged the hospital, her doctor and her nurse with medical negligence. Medical malpractice caps do nothing but further injure an already distraught victim. To learn more about the delayed ruling, please click the link.

The Illinois Supreme Court is expected to release its opinion on the constitutionality of medical malpractice damage caps on Thursday morning. The Illinois Medical Malpractice Act of 2005, which capped non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 doctors and $1 million for hospitals, came before the court in the case of Abigaile Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. In 2007, a Cook County Circuit Court Judge stated that the medical malpractice caps were unconstitutional. The law does not limit actual damages, including medical expenses and lost wages. To read more about the crucial upcoming case, please click the link.

It has been more than four years since medical malpractice reform was enacted in Illinois, and stakeholders are anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court decision on its constitutionality. Then-Governor Rod Blagojevich had signed the Illinois Medical Malpractice Act of 2005 into law on August 24, 2005. The bill would have automatically become law the next day had the governor not ceremoniously signed it before a large crowd of doctors and lawyers. The law caps non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, for physicians at $500,000 and hospitals at $1 million. The Illinois Supreme Court is expected to release its opinion in a challenge case that arose from Cook County. The case was Abigaile Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. An a against all odds-legislative victor for medical liability reform advocates set the stage for the historic bill signing in 2005. At the signing, Blagojevich told the overflow crowd that he was personally opposed to medical malpractice caps, but believed it was the right thing to do so that more people could have access to healthcare. Medical malpractice caps do nothing but injure victims of medical negligence. Hopefully, these caps will be found unconstitutional. To learn more about the pending case, please follow the link.

Lately, there has been a great deal of press given to medical malpractice damage caps and the part they play in reducing health care costs. However, people forget that damage caps would result in patients losing the benefit of the market oversight and penalties associated with malpractice underwriting. Capping liability could reduce the private market efforts to investigate the risk characteristics of the individuals they insure. Also, medical malpractice caps would harm injured patients. Instead, experts state that managed-care arrangements would be more useful in achieving the goals of lowering health care. They would allow medical professional liability insurance underwriters to continue to provide both oversight and penalties for medical negligence and substandard care. By setting up appropriate incentives, medical professional liability insurance can contribute to consumer protection in the market of physician services without taking away a patient’s rights. Putting caps on damages will only inhibit these efforts and hurt victims of medical negligence. To read more about the medical negligence, please click the link.

Seven years ago a woman entered a hospital for removal of her right ovary. However, she left the hospital with her left ovary removed. The patient filed a medical malpractice lawsuit and it is now headed towards the Kansas Supreme Court. The case has drawn attention because it discusses the constitutionality of placing caps on damages for pain and suffering. Currently the state does not allow damages to exceed the $250,000 medical malpractice cap. These medical malpractice caps take away the jury’s role in calculating malpractice damages and infringe on the separation powers of the courts. Most importantly, these medical malpractice caps hurt those with life-altering medical injuries. To read more about the medical malpractice damages, please click the link.

The Palm Beach Post reported that an appellate court has reinstated the $10.3 million settlement a jury awarded her after she lost her husband to a medical mistake. The family was awarded the money in 2003 after a jury found that the victim died because he did not receive treatment at a hospital. The case was almost overturned after a state law that caps jury awards in medical malpractice cases dictated that the victims could not receive their full award. The court found that the time of the victim’s death and the date the legislature decided to cap jury awards did not correlate. Since the man’s injury came before the caps went into effect, the court believed they didn’t apply. The man was rushed to the hospital in 2003 after a heart attack. Once he got to the hospital he did not receive proper care and was physically drained and unable to enjoy life. He died after complications from a heart transplant years after the medical error. The family is able to receive the $9.5 million award that the jury rightfully awarded them. To read more about the medical malpractice case, please click the link.

Tom Baker, a national expert on the impact of medical malpractice litigation on physician’s insurance costs, recently sat down with the Connecticut Tribune to discuss the recent health care reform debate. Several years ago, Baker studied the impact of medical malpractice litigation on health care-costs. He found that the vast majority of potential claimants recovered little or nothing in their medical malpractice suit. Baker discussed that medical malpractice reform isn’t always simply having caps on pain and suffering damages. He believes that one route is to make medical practice safer. This would not take away the litigant’s rights to recover in courts. Hopefully, the Obama administration will focus on patient safety and compensation. Baker believes that the best medical malpractice reform will come when the system is designed to make medical mistakes nearly impossible. To read more about the expert on medical malpractice, please click the link.

Recently, the President’s idea of tort reform has created a heated debate. One editorial discusses the myths and facts of tort reform. President Obama continued to endorse conservative ideas such as efforts to prevent victims of medical malpractice from winning compensation in the civil justice system in his health care speech. In the speech he stated “that he wants to look to a ‘range of ideas’ to ‘put patient safety first and let doctors’ focus on practicing medicine.’ Obama says some in Congress believe medical malpractice reform can help bring down health care costs. Although he doesn’t consider it the ‘silver bullet’ he knows that doctors practicing what he terms defensive medicine can lead to unnecessary costs. The reality is that “few causes in the healthcare debate draw more support than tort reform, the idea of reining in frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits. However, reliable reports estimate the costs of medical malpractice litigation at less than 2 percent of overall healthcare costs. There is also a pressing need for medical malpractice after a recent study highlighted the 98,000 deaths that occur each year by medical error. This is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Therefore it seems that legislators are giving the American public only some of the facts about medical malpractice.

It is also evident that medical malpractice caps are not working. Texas, the state with the most stringent caps on medical malpractice lawsuits, has the highest health care costs. In the end, a study in this state show that doctors are not ordering extra tests for feared of being sued, but rather to get paid more money. Instead of focusing on malpractice caps, let’s reform the way the doctors are compensated, so that wellness and preventive care is rewarded. This way we can work to reduce health problems and medical errors. To read the medical malpractice editorial, please click the link.

The AAJ responded to President Obama's speech to the American Medical Association today by stressing the importance of focusing on patient safety when discussing health care reform. On its website, the AAJ calls attention to the fact that there has been a lot of talk about restricting patients' rights but little done to address the prevention of medical errors. While medical malpractice lawsuits are a tiny percentage of health care costs, the website notes that 98,000 people die each year from preventable medical errors. The AAJ calls for lawmakers to focus on lowering the number of medical errors instead of further harming patients who may become the victim of these errors. Read more about the AAJ's position on medical malpractice reform as part of the larger push for health care reform.

As President Obama prepares to meet with the American Medical Association today in Chicago, a New York Times article reports that President Obama has been in talks to possibly support the reduction of medical malpractice lawsuits. While health care professionals support this change, personal injury attorneys argue that this change will negatively affect those injured or killed in incidents of medical negligence. Many see this move as a way to draw Republican support of his larger push for health care reform. To read the entire article on possible medical malpractice reform, follow the link.

Key players from Congress and the Obama Administration are once again bringing medical malpractice reform to the table. An AP article discusses that these changes could benefit doctors and hospitals but they would also harm a plaintiff’s ability to seek just compensation when they are involved in a medical malpractice case. Trial lawyers argue that medical malpractice lawsuits are not to blame for rising health care costs and only account for a very small portion of costs.

To read the full article about medical malpractice reform, visit the link.