Illinois judge voids cap on liability awards

The case heads to the state Supreme Court, which twice before declared noneconomic damage limits unconstitutional.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. Dec. 3, 2007.

The Illinois cap on noneconomic damages in medical liability cases hangs in the balance, now for the third time.

A trial court struck down the award limit as unconstitutional. A number of other state tort reforms were felled along with it. The Nov. 13 ruling propels the issue directly to the state Supreme Court.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane J. Larsen said the 2005 law -- which limits pain and suffering damages to $500,000 for physicians and $1 million for hospitals -- violates the separation of powers between the Legislature and the judiciary. Her opinion suggests that it's up to the courts, not lawmakers, to decide awards.

In addition, the decision invalidates a host of other reforms included in the statute, because those provisions were inseparable from the cap under the law. Among them, the court voided measures that:

• Increase the affidavit-of-merit requirements.
• Raise standards for medical expert witnesses.
• Allow periodic payments of jury awards by defendants.
• Exclude doctors' sympathy statements from being used against them in court.

The case before the court consolidated three lawsuits questioning the validity of the reforms. At press time in mid-November, Illinois State Medical Society officials said an appeal was imminent, though it had not yet been formally filed. Because the ruling hinges on the statute's constitutionality, the high court automatically would take up the appeal.

Physicians decried the trial court ruling and vowed to fight it.