Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance
Who Can Be Sued For Medical Malpractice in Illinois
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Our site also provides a great deal of free information on Illinois medical malpractice which hopefully can guide your attorney search or aid your general knowledge of the law. This page discusses who can be sued for medical malpractice in Illinois.
Medical malpractice lawsuits in Illinois can include more than just medical doctors. Aside from the typical doctor error or surgical error, malpractice cases include missed diagnosis, nursing error, hospital error, anesthesia error, pharmaceutical error, device error, misread x-ray, misread ultrasound, HMO misconduct, improper prescription, and dental injury, just to name a few. This means that dentists, nurses, radiologists, psychologists, pharmacies, physician's assistants and even entire hospitals can be sued for medical malpractice.
Often when a medical negligence suit is filed the plaintiff will actually sue a large variety of defendants. In other words, a lawsuit may be against a doctor, nurse, hospital, etc. Ironically the reason that happens is the attorneys that file the suit have to worry about not committing legal malpractice. In other words, if they fail to name the right defendant and the time to sue passes, the attorney himself could be sued.
Because the laws on adding additional defendants after a certain amount of time has passed are harsh, often nurses and doctors who have nothing to do with a lawsuit are dragged into a case. Unfortunately this hurts everyone because the costs to pursue and defend a lawsuit increase and the time to get a case ready for trial increases. As a result it is not unusual for a case to take years once it is filed to actually be heard inside of a courtroom.
If you've sustained an injury due to the careless or intentional act of a medical doctor, dentist, nurse, psychiatrist, hospital (or other healthcare provider), etc., then you may have the right to recover damages from them. Malpractice cases are complicated, and you will be required to prove not only that the professional's actions resulted in your injury, but also that they breached their duty of care to you. In proving that the professional breached their duty of care, you will need to provide an expert witness.
In addition to the complicated nature of the cases, you should know that trying a malpractice case is very expensive (they can cost over $100,000). Because the average person cannot afford the costs of bringing a malpractice case on their own, most attorneys will usually advance all of the costs of the trial. These attorneys who work exclusively on malpractice cases cannot afford to lose, and as a result will reject 95% of the cases that come before them, often because it does not make financial sense for them to pursue a claim.
If you think that you might have a medical malpractice claim, it is important that you have an attorney to guide you through the process. It is even more important that you have an attorney who:
- Has had tremendous success in Illinois medical malpractice lawsuits.
- Knows who the best expert witnesses are; and who
- Knows the likelihood of success in your situation
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