Chicago Injury Attorney Blog

A medical malpractice lawsuit that will soon go before the Illinois Supreme Court could test the constitutionality of a state law limiting how much a plaintiff can receive for non-economic damages. The personal injury lawsuit, first filed in Cook County, involves a young girl who sustained a serious birth injury in October 2005. According to the lawsuit filed by the girl’s mother, Frances LeBron, Abigaile LeBron became mentally impaired and suffers from cerebral palsy due to the birthing malpractice incident. She will now will require 24-hour specialized care for life.

Illinois’s medical malpractice damage caps allows a medical malpractice plaintiff to be awarded no more than $1,000,000 in non-economic damages from hospitals and $500,000 maximum from doctors. There is no cap for the amount of economic damages that a plaintiff can be awarded.

Last year, however, the Cook County circuit court judge presiding over this case found Illinois's medical malpractice caps law to be invalid and unconstitutional. Judge Larsen also said the limits prevent juries from properly compensating injury victims.

There have been two times in the past that the Illinois Supreme Court has found that laws placing a limit on personal injury damages were unconstitutional. The latest law was enacted in 2005.

Cerebral Palsy
This medical condition is a result of permanent brain damage sustained by a baby before, during, or right after birth, and the lifetime costs of caring for a child, who will later become an adult diagnosed with cerebral palsy, can be astronomical. Birthing mistakes that can lead to cerebral palsy include:

• Improper forcep use.
• Failure to move the baby through the birth canal quickly enough.
• Failure to remove an umbilical wrapped around the baby’s neck in a timely manner.
• Failure to plan or perform cesarean birth in a timely fashion.

Illinois' med mal law on trial, StlToday.com, August 18, 2008

Illinois Malpractice Case May Shape Tort Reform, NPR.com, February 21, 2007

Related Web Resource:

Cerebral Palsy, National Institute of Neurological Disorders