Marshall, IL asked in Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice for Illinois

Q: medical injury cannot find lawyer due to case won't net enough of money for their law firm any suggestions? arbitration?

i feel the doctor should be held accountable for causing me additional injury pain and suffering here in life!

2 Lawyer Answers
Charles Candiano
Charles Candiano
Answered
  • Chicago, IL
  • Licensed in Illinois

A: I do not know anything about your situation. If a law firm has confirmed to you that the physician's actions constituted medical negligence, you can always file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. That is the State agency that licenses all physicians in Illinois. You could also send a copy to ISMIE (Illinois State Medical Insurance Exchange).

It is important to remember that nearly all procedures have foreseeable consequences. If the subject of your complaint was a foreseeable consequence of the procedure performed (usually by a surgeon), irrespective of the harm caused to you, it is not medical negligence, by definition. For example, if a surgeon performed abdominal surgery and inadvertently nicked your bowel, you would develop an infection, a fever, and require another surgery to repair the bowel and irrigate the area, in addition to a longer hospital stay and IV antibiotics. As you can imagine, all of this more than doubles the cost to an insurance company or Medicare but that doesn't stop them from paying. The additional time in the hospital and the additional discomfort to the patient in that instance do not constitute medical malpractice (medical negligence) UNLESS the doctor failed to monitor the patient, postoperatively and the infection/sepsis resulted in the patient's death. THAT would be malpractice.

Lindsey Seeskin
Lindsey Seeskin
Answered
  • Medical Malpractice Lawyer
  • Chicago, IL
  • Licensed in Illinois

A: I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been through.

Law firms often analyze two main aspects of potential medical malpractice cases when deciding whether to pursue one on behalf of a client: (1) fault (e.g. Did actual malpractice occur or was this instead a bad but frequently occurring outcome? Did the malpractice itself cause injury/death to someone?) and (2) injuries (e.g. How was someone hurt? Were they injured or killed? Are the injuries permanent?)

Based on what you've described, the reason why firms are turning you down, though perhaps related to #1, may have more to do with #2. However, the determining factor should always be whether the client (not the law firm) could benefit from pursuing a case. The unfortunate reality of medical malpractice cases is that (for a variety of reasons) they are extremely expensive to pursue properly and often take several years to resolve. If the best case financial resolution for a client would be less than what a client would ultimately recover at the end of the case after incurring the expenses of pursuing it, the client would not benefit, and a law firm looking out for the client's best interests would turn the case down rather than needlessly drag a client through the process.

However, as Charles Candiano pointed out, that does not mean there is or should be no recourse. Filing a complaint with the IDFPR and copying ISMIE is an option available to you.

* Disclaimer: My answer does not constitute official legal advice. However, I do sincerely hope it provides you with some clarity. Should you wish to discuss your question further, please feel free to call me.

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