This Thursday, the Illinois Supreme Court will release its highly-anticipated opinion in Lebron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, a case arising out of the constitutionality of caps on “non-economic” or “non-liquidated” damages in medical malpractice actions. Top Illinois medical malpractice lawyers, who represent individuals and families of those who were permanently injured or killed by preventable medical errors, hope the Supreme Court will strike down such caps as unconstitutional.
In 2005, the Illinois legislature passed the Medical Malpractice Act of 2005, which capped non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 for doctors and $1 million for hospitals. Abigaile Lebron challenged the Act as unconstitutional.
Abigaile is a three-year-old girl who sustained severe and permanent brain damage as a result of medical negligence. She will never achieve normal cognitive or physical development; she will have to be fed through a tube for the rest of her life; and she will likely never live independently. Under the Medical Malpractice Act, her potential recovery in her medical malpractice action is capped at an arbitrary limit.
In 2007, a Cook County circuit court ruled that the caps were, indeed, unconstitutional. Hopefully, for the sake of those injured or killed by medical negligence, the Supreme Court will strike down these arbitrary damage caps as unconstitutional. To speak with a top Chicago medical malpractice attorney at Passen & Powell, call us at (312) 527-4500 for a Free Consultation.
