CAPS ON NONECONOMIC DAMAGES FOR MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASES FOUND UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN ILLINOIS AND GEORGIA

In Lebron vs. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital et al., decided February 2010, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the third attempt of the state’s legislature to impose caps on noneconomic damages.  The majority held that non-economic damages in medical malpractice actions violated the state constitution’s separation of powers clause.  In Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery, P.C. v Nestlehutt et al., decided March 2010, the Georgia Supreme Court held that the legislature’s attempt to codify non-economic damages caps in medical malpractice cases was unconstitutional.  Chief Justice Hunstein, writing for the Court, concluded that, “[t]he very existence of the caps, in any amount, is violative of the right to trial by jury.”