Judge declares caps on malpractice awards unconstitutional

In a welcome ruling, an Illinois judge has struck down a law that placed caps on some malpractice awards. The losers: big-money interests like the Illinois Hospital Association and the big insurance companies. The winners: anyone whose life might be shattered by medical malpractice—in other words, every American man, woman, and child.

Beyond this, of course, such caps are unconstitutional, since they violate citizens’ rights to due process of law, in effect depriving victims of the right to fair compensation if their losses exceed an artificial, pre-determined maximum.

As the Chicago Sun-Times reports,

The ruling came in the case of Abigaile LeBron, whose family last December sued Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park and Dr. Roberto Levi-D’Ancona for not acting quickly enough when Abigaile’s mother began showing problems during her October 2005 birth. Abigaile was left with severe brain damage and other developmental problems.

The law sought to limit “non-economic” damages, e.g. pain and suffering, to non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals.

If these amounts seem high to you, ask yourself: how would they stack up against the anguish, and the many hardships you would face, if your child or other loved one were permanently disabled due to the carelessness of some hospital bureaucrat?