Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorney

I am an experienced medical malpractice lawyer, providing legal services to Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. Since my wife is a physician (see biography), I am extremely sensitive to screening possible
medical malpractice cases for merit. Aside from that, particularly amidst all the hue and cry to
limit lawsuits against physicians in the name of “tort reform,” it only makes good business sense
to bring only medical malpractice cases that have merit. Literally hundreds of thousands of
dollars can be spent to prosecute a medical malpractice case. Under Illinois law a certificate of
merit must be filed with the complaint that establishes a physician has reviewed the case and
found it to have merit.

Medical malpractice cases frequently involve a failure to diagnose a life threatening condition. When the missed diagnosis is a rare one, then you will hear the defense argument, "when you hear hoofbeats, do you think horses or zebras." This doctor thought horses so the defense argues that, while error or mistake may in hindsight have been made, the doctor did not commit malpractice. 

There are ways to take on these arguments. One is just to appeal to the good old fashioned common sense of jurors. In a recent case resulting in a $11.11 million jury verdict in Cook County, Illinois, the board-certified emergency department physician failed to diagnose a brain infection. The patient presented with widespread ear and nasal infections and then could not walk out of the emergency department, as she had been discharged by the physician. The doctor diagnosed the ear and nasal infections but did not recognize bacterial meningitis as a cause of the brain infection. There was a possibility that the patient had a brain infection. As Plouff told the jury, "Probably isn’t good enough when possibly can kill you." Birth injury cases are a good example of how it is better to be safe than sorry.

If you require the advice of a Chicago medical malpractice attorney, contact my office today.