Illinois Personal Injury – Lawyers and Recent Developments
Personal injury laws in Illinois generally involve a person being physically or emotionally injured, or a person’s property being damaged. Illinois personal injury law allows individuals to be compensated for damages caused by another person’s intentional actions, carelessness, negligence, or recklessness. Damages in Illinois personal injury cases can consist of payment of medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other losses. There is no magic formula for the value of a case and every case is different. In most cases, the money paid for a settlement comes from an insurance company. Over the past several years, the Illinois State Legislature has passed several new laws that have had significant effects on the rights and responsibilities of plaintiffs and defendants in personal injury actions.
Medical Malpractice Recovery Limits
Perhaps the most significant change in Illinois personal injury law in the last two years is the 2005 law by the Illinois legislature establishing a maximum amount of “pain and suffering” damages recoverable in a medical malpractice case. Specifically, the law caps $500,000 in damages for “pain and suffering” against Illinois doctors. The law also includes a $1 million limit on noneconomic (ie, punitive) damages against hospitals. In addition, it also contains provisions to prevent frivolous lawsuits, new disciplinary tools and public disclosure to weed out bad doctors, and more oversight and competition among companies that provide medical malpractice insurance to doctors.
Similar laws have been enacted, or at least contemplated, across the country and are drawing strong opinions on both sides. Victims groups say the law will deny severely injured and/or disabled medical malpractice victims full compensation for their injuries. These groups further argue that the caps will thwart the social benefits of medical malpractice laws, which weed out incompetent doctors. On the other side of the debate are doctors and insurance companies who claim that frivolous medical malpractice laws drive up insurance premiums that are then passed on to patients. This, they say, drives doctors away from treating low-income patients or forces them out of their practice altogether.
Protectors “Good Samaritan”
Beginning in July 2006, the Illinois legislature recently added so-called “good Samaritan” laws that protect people who provide emergency care to injured people from subsequent lawsuits by those same people. Specifically, the new section provides that a person who is currently certified in first aid by the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association and who in good faith provides first aid free of charge to any person, as a result of his or her acts or omissions, except willful and wanton misconduct on the part of the person providing the aid, you will be liable to the person to whom such aid is provided for civil damages
Evidence of medical malpractice
Although less significant (and less controversial) than the damage caps described above, two other recent Illinois laws have changed the type of evidence that is admissible in medical malpractice cases.
The first area of reform deals with standards for expert witnesses in medical malpractice cases. These experts are almost always physicians and are often critical to the outcome of a case. The law specifically provides that in an action against a medical professional, a qualified expert is one who: (1) is board certified or board eligible in the same or a similar specialty as the defendant; (2) You have spent the majority of your work time in University-based practice, teaching, or research related to the type of care or treatment at issue in the claim; (3) is licensed in the same profession with the same class of license as the defendant if the defendant is an individual; (4) In a case against a non-specialist, an expert must demonstrate familiarity with the standard of care and must provide evidence of active practice, teaching, or university research. If retired, an expert must provide evidence of completion of continuing education for the previous three years. An individual must have practiced, taught, or actively participated in university research, or any combination of the two, within the last five years to qualify as an expert witness.
Second, the Illinois legislature recently enacted a statute that prevents medical malpractice plaintiffs from presenting evidence in the form of a physician’s statement of apology at trial. Critics of this measure say the law is designed to shield hospitals and insurance companies from liability in cases where a doctor has essentially admitted fault and apologized to the victim for her negligence.
Emotional Loss Damage Recovery for Rape Victims
The Illinois legislature also recently enacted legislation giving victims of sexual assault and rape more time to file civil lawsuits against the perpetrator. More specifically, the law suspends the current two-year statute of limitations in the state of Illinois if the victim is threatened, intimidated, or manipulated by the perpetrator or another person acting in the perpetrator’s interest. Advocates for the law say rape victims are too often abused, intimidated or threatened into giving up their legal rights against the perpetrator. This law will ensure that loopholes like the statute of limitations will not reward perpetrators for avoiding civil liability for their actions.
Ban on “fast food” lawsuits
Unlike previous laws, which simply changed the rules of personal injury lawsuits, this law effectively eliminated an entire category of lawsuits available to plaintiffs. As of January 1, 2008, this law prevents any person from filing a lawsuit based on a claim of injury resulting from the person’s weight gain, obesity, or any health condition related to the person’s weight gain or obesity. Exceptions are made if the seller knowingly and willfully violated a federal or state statute applicable to the marketing, distribution, advertising, labeling, or sale of the product.
The above laws represent changes made only in the last two years in Illinois. To varying degrees, each law affects both personal injury plaintiffs and the rights and responsibilities of defendants in the state of Illinois. Some of these laws expand plaintiff’s rights, some limit defendants’ liabilities, and others eliminate categories of personal injury actions altogether. In an era when citizens, politicians, and industry groups continue to debate the merits of America’s litigious culture, personal injury law in Illinois will undoubtedly continue its constant evolution for years to come.
Times are certainly changing for Illinois personal injury attorneys and for people seeking accident claims in Illinois. Even with a Democratic governor and the House and Senate, restrictions on people seeking compensation for injuries are tightening by the day.