Total Injury

A proposed personal injury law that would let Illinois courts award monetary damages for suffering to the families of victims who were killed because of someone else’s negligence is waiting for a signature from Governor Rod Blagojevich. Illinois law currently forbids juries from considering emotional suffering during wrongful death cases. A Chicago-Sun Times story detailed how the measure would allow juries to consider the “grief, sorrow, and mental suffering” of the deceased victim’s family members during a wrongful death lawsuit. Senator Kwame Raoul sponsored this personal injury legislation and opinioned how it is wrong to not let juries consider these feelings of family members during wrongful death cases.

The story added that state Republicans have criticized this bill out of a fear that it will undermine the caps set in a 2005 Illinois law that currently limits wrongful death medical malpractice lawsuit judgments to $500,000 for doctors and $1 million for hospitals. At that time, lawmakers in favor of that law had argued that having no caps on medical malpractice awards was resulting in higher insurance premiums and forcing some doctors to leave the state.

This proposed Illinois personal injury law is thus challenging the 2005 law and would also create a new way for families to receive compensation in medical malpractice cases. This legislation passed the Democratic-controlled Illinois Senate by a 31-23 vote last week after being passed in the House  by a 63-52 vote in April. A Blagojevich spokesman said that the Governor has not yet decided whether he will sign the bill. We’ll keep you updated on the latest developments with this Illinois wrongful death legislation.