The Illinois Supreme Court in a 4-2 decision struck down limits on damages awards in medical malpractice cases with its decision in Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital on thursday. The court held that the legislation was unconstitutional. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Fitzgeral held, in part: “[W]e necessarily consider…the legislature’s goal in enacting the […]
Earlier this week the Illinois Supreme Court announced that it would likely release its decision on medical malpractice reform in the case of Lebron, et al vs. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, et al today. Unfortunately, it appears that the court did not release the decision today as anticipated. This is not an uncommon occurence. The Lebron […]
In the wake of the devastating three part series in this week’s Chicago Tribune exposing Chicago and Illinois nursing homes and their practice of housing sex offenders and convicted felons with regular patients, Patrick Quinn, the Governor of Illinois, has announced the formation of a high level task force to look into these troubling issues. […]
In Illinois there is a stautue of limitations on medical malpractice claims which generally prohibits filing of a lawsuit two years from the date of malpractice or two years after the malpractice is discoverd. The statute of repose sets an outside tail date for filing such claims after four years have elapsed from the time […]
A study prepared by the Chicago Reporter shows that black Chicago area nursing home residents receive the worst quality care in the country. There is just one nursing home in the Chicago area rated excellent by the federal government where the majority of the patients are black. These homes have more federal violations, medical malpractice […]
What does reforming medical malpractice have to do with the current health care reform debate that is a hot topic in Washington and here in Illinois? Not much, at least according to one ranking United States Senator. “I honestly really don’t see this as a health care issue,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The Senator, […]
How do we cap medical malpractice without capping medical malpractice awards for those patients who are injured by the negligence of doctors. Everyone agrees that the health care system in the United States is in need of a drastic overhaul. The key is accomplishing an overhaul without further abridging the rights of the needy. Andy […]
On March 26, 2009 we reported on the efforts of one family to have the Feres doctrine legislatively overturned. If you recall the Feres doctrine prohibits an active member of the United States military from suing the an Army hospital for medical malpractice. This prohibition on medical malpractice suits brought by members of the armed services has […]
One of the principal arguments backers of tort reform use to justify damages caps is that increased insurance premiums have an adverse effect on health care costs that are passed on to the consumer. This argument persists in spite of the fact that there is little or no evidence that this actually occurs. In California, […]
Sadly, medical mistakes continue to be one of the leading causes of death in the United States. There are close to 100,000 preventable deaths a year in America making medical errors the fifth leading cause of death in our country. A culture of shame and a lack of accountability often times prevents full disclosure of medical […]
