Outlines significant amendments to Illinois’ newly updated Dental Practice Act and suggests actions dental practitioners should take to comply.
Summarizes Illinois’ new law regulating the use of AI in delivering mental health services to residents. Outlines steps professionals and companies providing mental health services should take to comply with the law.
Analyzes Illinois appellate decision in Johnson v. Advocate, which impacts medical malpractice defense on jury instructions and sole proximate cause, as well as high-low proposals under the state’s prejudgment interest statute.
Summarizes Missouri appellate court ruling on the qualified privilege attorneys hold from being sued by non-clients for what the attorneys did on behalf of their clients. Includes type of facts that must be alleged in pleadings.
Analyzes Illinois Supreme Court case where plaintiff sued his attorneys for violating HIPAA and Mental Health Act by allegedly disclosing privileged health information. Court found Plaintiff waived that privilege by self-disclosing information at trial.
Discusses recent Thompson v. Laspisa appellate decision, including its long-term effects on necessity for expert witnesses in professional negligence cases.
Analyzes an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that in some legal malpractice cases, attorneys may have to pay the punitive damages their clients incurred in the underlying case
Analyzes an appellate court decision where the distinction between “treatment” and “diagnosis” determined application of Illinois Tort Immunity Act
Analyzes Illinois Appellate ruling denying improper venue and forum non conveniens in case where co-defendant was dismissed after time required to appear
Analyzes judicial and advisory ethics opinions on whether arbitration clauses in attorney engagement letters are enforceable
Analysis of immunity under Illinois’ EMS Act after Hernandez v. Lifeline Ambulance, LLC: Preparatory conduct and travel v. transport
Most lawyers are keenly aware of Illinois’ Attorney Registration Commission’s (ARDC) role in the attorney registration, licensing, and continuing education processes. However, many are unaware of the processes involved in the investigation and prosecution of attorney discipline matters. Here are three tips (and a bonus!) for things you should consider if you are faced with a complaint to or Request for Investigation from the ARDC.
- Don’t delay, but don’t fire off an emotional response.
Rule 53 of the Rules of the ARDC requires lawyers practicing within the state of ...
Grauer v. Clare Oaks, et al, 2019 IL App (1st) 180835, is noteworthy to all counsel who regularly encounter fee-shifting statutes in their practice. Grauer was borne out of a verdict against a nursing home, but the court’s analysis as to the reasonableness of attorney’s fees and what constitutes “costs” in the context of the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act is important to all practitioners.
The Nursing Home Act provides that “the licensee shall pay the actual damages and costs and attorney’s fees to a facility resident whose rights” under the Act are violated. 210 ILCS ...
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Responsibility (IDFPR) is the state agency that oversees licensure and discipline of various health care practitioners, including physicians, nurses, and dentists, among others. The IDFPR is charged with overseeing enforcement of the various healthcare practice acts, and it typically investigates matters brought to its attention, primarily from patient complaints. With the advent of electronic communications, dissatisfied patients can pursue complaints with far greater ease. The simplicity of electronically ...
Nursing Home litigation has increased significantly in Illinois in recent years in large part due to the failure of Illinois to institute damages caps and eliminate attorney’s fees from their nursing home statute. Attorneys’ fees are recoverable under the Nursing Home Care Act. In fact, the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act provides for fee shifting and specifically states that “The licensee shall pay the actual damages and costs and attorney’s fees to a facility resident whose rights, as specified in Part 1 of Article II of this Act, are violated.” 210 ILCS 45/3-602. An ...
The Nursing Home Care Act (“Act”) was born of concerns about reports of inadequate or improper treatment of residents in such facilities and provided residents with a cause of action against those facilities. To encourage residents, residents’ families, and attorneys to bring claims against nursing homes, the Act originally provided that a resident whose rights were violated could recover “3 times the actual damages . . . and costs and attorney’s fees.” 210 ILCS 45/3-602. That rather draconian remedy was subsequently challenged as being unconstitutional but was ...
Illinois law provides specific rules that nursing homes must follow when discharging or transferring a resident when the resident does not agree to the discharge/transfer (an “involuntary discharge/transfer”). 210 ILCS 45/3-401 et seq. If the resident requests a hearing on the discharge/transfer, an attorney must represent the nursing home during the hearing/appeal process if the nursing home is operated by a corporate entity or limited liability company. Stone Street Partners, LLC v. The City of Chicago Dept. of Admin. Hearings, 2014 IL App (1st) 123654. Before the ...
Under certain circumstances, Missouri nursing homes may discharge or transfer a resident even when the resident does not agree to the discharge/transfer (an “involuntary discharge/transfer”). If the resident appeals the discharge/transfer, Missouri law requires that an attorney represent the nursing home during the hearing/appeal process if the nursing home is operated by a corporate entity. 19 CSR 30-82.050(12). Before the hearing, however, the nursing home must follow specific rules to facilitate the resident’s discharge/transfer.
Missouri Rules on the ...
Are you considering retaining an expert, in a medical malpractice case, who has a history of medical malpractice suits being filed against him or her? Have you just deposed an expert in a medical malpractice case and learned that they have been previously sued for medical malpractice? In either situation, you will likely have to determine whether the expert’s prior lawsuits will be admissible at trial. A recent Illinois appellate court ruling, Swift v. Schleicher, suggests that circuit courts should bar any evidence of medical malpractice lawsuits filed against the expert.
The ...
