Alton Lawyer Explains What to Expect in Medical Malpractice Cases

Our Daily Show Interview! Keith Short & Associates: Medical Malpractice

ALTON - If you think you have a medical malpractice case on your hands, attorney Keith Short has a few pieces of advice.

Short, with Keith Short & Associates, P.C., in Alton, shared that whether you’re in Illinois or Missouri, you have only two years before the statute of limitations expires. He urges potential clients to find a lawyer quickly, but make sure your lawyer is experienced in medical malpractice.

“Number one thing is, understand there’s a clock running,” he said. “If your two years are over, your two years are over in Illinois or Missouri. There are some exceptions, but that’s pretty much it. So first thing is, you get to somebody as quickly as you can. Second thing is, you have to get to somebody who actually knows what they’re doing.”

Short noted that “time is being wasted” if you don’t choose a lawyer who, like him, specializes in medical malpractice. He urges clients to choose someone who is “actually qualified.”

If you are looking to win a medical malpractice case, you have to prove that your injury was “caused by a provider that failed to do or did do something that a reasonably careful one wouldn’t do,” Short explained. This is “actually pretty easy” for a good lawyer to prove, he added.

But in Missouri, you can also focus on punitive damages. This is much harder to prove; in fact, Short said he doesn’t spend much time on these cases because it’s so difficult.

“Missouri has punitive damages and Illinois doesn't have punitive damages, but none of us really care about that in Illinois,” he said. “Punitive damages are incredibly difficult to prove. You’d have to prove intent, like the doctor or nurse intended, and I refuse to believe that 99.99% would ever do that. In Missouri, they have punitive damages in medical malpractice, but the burden you have to prove is almost to get in the person's mind and prove that they wanted this harm to happen to this person, and that’s so impossible.”

The potential payout is another major difference between Illinois and Missouri. In Missouri, there is a cap to the amount of money that a client can receive in a medical malpractice case.

The cap on noneconomic, noncatastrophic damage is $473,444. For example, if your child lost a limb due to medical malpractice, the most money you could be awarded is $473,444. An adult might be able to recover more due to lost wages.

If the damage is deemed to be catastrophic — if you experience quadriplegia, paraplegia, loss of two or more limbs, significant cognitive impairment, irreversible failure to a major organ or significant loss of vision — the cap is $828,529.

Illinois does not have either cap. Short said these caps can be credited to the protections that are in place for doctors and surgeons.

“Hospitals and doctors are protected for some reason, even though they’re the wealthiest group by any manmade stretch of possible consideration,” he said. “For anything other than medical malpractice in the state of Missouri, you will pay the full price of the damage you cause. But not in medical malpractice. The wealthiest group, which is surgeons and doctors, by far, as a total class of employment — they have more protection afforded to them than you do or I do or a plumber or cab driver or trashman or anyone else.”

The cost of the medical expenses also plays a major role in calculating the damages of a case. Additionally, a person’s identity and situation can impact the amount of money they receive. For example, a woman who has a scar on her face due to medical malpractice will receive more money than a man with that same scar. Short said a lot of these cases depend on “where we are and who we are and all those other factors.”

He added that the threat of a lawsuit can be a good deterrent to stop people from breaking the law or doing something that has the potential to hurt another person.

“The good thing about litigation, and people don’t really appreciate this, is, it deters us from doing incredibly stupid things,” he said. “We all think, ‘Man, I don’t want somebody like Keith to show up at my door. I don’t want to get sued by that S.O.B.’”

If you feel like you have a medical malpractice case, Short encourages you to reach out to a qualified lawyer like himself as soon as possible. For more information about Keith Short & Associates, P.C., visit their official website at SILTrial.com.

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