The Illinois Supreme Court declared that the 2005 law that placed caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases in Illinois was unconstitutional. Truthfully, it was not much of a surprise.I have a few thoughts:1. This is the third time — yes, third — that the Illinois Supreme Court has declared that caps on damages violates the Illinois Constitution. Seeing as caps had been declared unconstitutional twice before, that is why today’s decision was not much of a surprise.2. The law was enacted in 2005, and I would be willing to bet that there are at least a handful of cases, if not more, that were settled on a basis that indicated that no one assumed that the caps would be upheld. None of the lawyers I know were proceeding on the basis that the caps were constitutional.3. You will probably see things in the press about how the rates for malpractice insurance for doctors went down after the caps went into effect. Here’s the thing: when the General Assembly passed the caps, they also passed a number of insurance reforms which were intended to make the markets for insurance in Illinois more competitive. Those reforms probably account for the drop in insurance rates, not the caps.
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