Professional Liability Blog

Legislatively-enacted statues of repose eliminate causes of action after a specified period of time and benefit design professionals by establishing a finite period of time in which a party can bring a civil action against them, thereby preventing stale claims and the difficulty of defending a suit where evidence and witnesses are no longer available.

In a matter of first impression, the Illinois Appellate Court in Lawler v. University of Chicago Medical Center had to determine whether Illinois’ medical malpractice statute of repose bars applying the “relation back” doctrine to add a new claim under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act. The relation back doctrine allows an original, timely filed pleading to be amended any time before final judgment, as long as the amendment “relates back” to the original complaint. In Lawler, the appellate court decided to apply the doctrine—but now the Supreme Court of Illinois has decided it’s time for a weigh-in.