The personal injury bar won a decisive victory recently when the Supreme Court of Illinois struck down a state law limiting damages for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases, finding that the law interferes with the power of the judicial branch to reduce jury verdicts.
The decision stems from a case in which plaintiffs alleged malpractice against a hospital and a doctor involved in the delivery of a baby that suffered brain-damage. The proposed law advocated by the health care industry, would have limited non-monetary damages to a $1 million recovery against the hospital and its personnel and to a $500,000 recovery against the individual doctor.
Maryland currently has a cap of $575,000 for non-monetary damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, which is being challenged by [name some trial lawyer association]. Similarly, Virginia has a cap of $1.5 Million for total damages . Washington, D.C., however, has no cap on awards for pain and suffering for victims of medical malpractice.
The Illinois case featured several prominent Washington, D.C. players, such as professor and attorney Michael Gottesman who teaches at the Georgetown University Law Center, and Attorney Robert Peck, who heads the Center for Constitutional Litigation located in the nation's capital. They both argued the case on behalf of the injured party. Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, a Washington Attorney with law firm Gibson Dunn, argued for the defense.
