Chicago Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Last updated on October 27, 2025

Your medical provider has a legal duty to provide you with the standard of care expected from someone in their capacity. They failed in that duty. Now, it’s our job to make sure you recover fair compensation. Our medical malpractice attorneys at Steinberg, Goodman & Kalish hold negligent doctors, hospitals and other health care providers accountable for their mistakes.

When you entrust health care professionals with your care, you expect them to act with knowledge, experience and professionalism. When a medical professional or another health care provider makes a mistake, patients like you are often left with serious injuries. In the worst of cases, wrongful death is the result. Medical mistakes cause at least 250,000 deaths annually.

The lawyers at Steinberg, Goodman & Kalish have recovered millions of dollars for our clients, including multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements. Read more about our medical malpractice case results here.

What Is Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional or facility provides substandard care to a patient, and as a result, the patient suffers serious injuries. If you suffered injuries that were caused by your health care provider’s failure to deliver the expected standard of care, you likely have a medical malpractice case.

Different Types Of Medical Malpractice Cases

Medical malpractice cases can take many forms. Some medical malpractice claims and lawsuits arise in the emergency room when a negligent doctor or another medical professional makes a mistake. Other times, surgical errors, dangerous medical devices, medication errors or birth injuries cause malpractice victims to suffer harm.

Some of the most common cases our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers handle involve:

• Diagnosis errors: When a doctor fails to identify an illness in time or gives the wrong diagnosis, patients lose the chance for timely and appropriate treatment. These mistakes may involve missing key symptoms, overlooking test results or misreading diagnostic images such as X-rays or MRIs. The result can be a condition that worsens unnecessarily or treatment that causes additional harm.
• Prescription errors: Patients rely on doctors, nurses and pharmacists to prescribe and administer medication safely. Errors such as giving the wrong drug, prescribing an incorrect dosage or failing to check for dangerous interactions with other medications can lead to severe complications or even death.
• Surgical errors: While not every poor outcome after surgery is malpractice, some surgical mistakes are preventable. Operating on the wrong body part, performing the wrong procedure, leaving a foreign object inside the patient or failing to provide proper post-operative care are all examples of surgical negligence that can have life-altering consequences.
• Hospital infections: Hospitals and nursing homes are expected to maintain safe, sanitary conditions. When they do not, patients may contract preventable infections such as MRSA, pneumonia or bloodstream infections. These illnesses can cause prolonged hospital stays, additional treatment and long-term health problems.

These examples show just how many ways medical professionals can make harmful mistakes. If you or a loved one suffered because of negligence, our attorneys can review your case and explain your options for pursuing justice.

How Can Our Medical Malpractice Lawyers In Chicago Help You?

At Steinberg, Goodman & Kalish, our attorneys have been recognized as some of the best medical malpractice lawyers in Chicago. We take on some of the most complicated medical malpractice cases involving area hospitals, nursing homes, doctors and other medical professionals, and we win. How do we do it?

When people in our community suffer harm at the hands of medical providers, our medical malpractice attorneys take their injuries personally. Our law firm works with top medical experts to help us identify what is wrong and who may be liable for our clients’ injuries. Our proven medical malpractice attorneys have extensive trial experience, and we don’t back down to large medical providers or their insurance companies.

Holding Nursing Homes Accountable For Medical Malpractice

Maltreatment of residents in long-term care facilities and assisted living homes can take many forms. Nursing home negligence may include not providing assistance with regular hygiene, neglecting to regularly adjust the positions of residents with limited or no mobility, failing to help residents eat or drink and not providing adequate medical care.

When nursing home negligence involves substandard medical treatment or the lack of access to necessary medical treatment, victims may have grounds for medical malpractice lawsuits. If you or a loved one suffered injuries in a nursing home in Chicago, an experienced medical malpractice attorney at our law firm can help you obtain compensation.

Winning Illinois Birth Injury Claims

Did your baby suffer birth injuries caused by medical malpractice? Without an experienced Chicago medical malpractice attorney on your side, you could be looking at footing the bill for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in medical expenses, ongoing care and modifications to your home. If your child was harmed because of substandard prenatal care or medical mistakes during labor and delivery, our medical malpractice lawyers can help you recover fair compensation.

Mistakes and negligence during pregnancy or the labor and delivery process may cause a wide range of birth injuries. Our medical malpractice lawyers have experience pursuing the rights of children and their families in cases involving:

• Traumatic brain injuries
• Facial nerve palsy
• Cerebral palsy
• Brachial plexus injuries
• Spinal cord injuries
• Shoulder dystocia and collarbone fractures

Birth injury cases are complex and emotionally overwhelming, but you don’t have to face them alone. Our attorneys will fight for the resources your child needs today and the financial security your family deserves for the future.

Holding Medical Professionals Liable For Negligence

If you suffer an adverse health event because of medical mistakes, you may experience significant financial stress in addition to the physical and emotional challenges caused by your injury or illness. Don’t let the insurance company minimize your losses. Injured victims who are left with a serious medical condition, like a brain injury or a permanent disability, may need ongoing medical treatment, consultations with medical experts, multiple surgeries, in-home nursing care and special medical equipment to help them stay alive.

Our medical malpractice lawyers don’t believe you and your family should have to pay for the mistakes a medical professional made. When you hire a medical malpractice attorney at our law firm, we will make sure the parties who contributed to causing your injuries are held accountable for the harm they caused.

Determining Liability For Health Care Negligence

Several parties may be liable in medical malpractice claims and lawsuits. Attorneys who handle medical malpractice cases will help you determine liability and take legal action against:

• Physicians
• Nurses
• Technicians and aides
• Health care facilities
• Nursing homes or long-term care residences

Varying factors may contribute to medical negligence – from staffing shortages and inadequate safety protocols to fatigue or lack of appropriate training. Your medical malpractice lawyers in Chicago, Illinois, will look at the cause of the negligence to determine if the health care provider, facility or both have liability for your damages.

Damages Available To Medical Malpractice Victims

If you suffer harm because of medical negligence, you may seek compensation for your associated losses. Patients who suffer from medical malpractice may be eligible to receive compensation for their economic losses. These may include damages for loss of income, loss of future earnings, medical bills and other out-of-pocket expenses.

In addition to economic losses, you may also recover damages for noneconomic losses through a medical malpractice claim in Chicago, Illinois. Noneconomic damages include those losses without tangible values, such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium and disfigurement.

The Four D’s Of Negligence In A Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

If you suffered harm because of doctor errors or other issues with your medical care and want to recover damages, you will need to prove the four D’s of negligence in order to show that malpractice occurred. Our medical malpractice legal team will help you understand these elements as they apply to your case and, more importantly, how to prove them.

Proving Your Medical Negligence Claim

To succeed in a medical malpractice case, you must show that a health care provider’s negligence directly caused your injuries. In Illinois, this involves proving four key elements.

• Duty of care: A provider-patient relationship must exist. By agreeing to treat you, a doctor, nurse or facility takes on the legal duty to provide care consistent with accepted medical standards. Medical records and other documentation usually establish this duty.
• Deviation from the standard of care: Once duty is established, you must show the provider failed to act as a reasonably skilled professional would under the same circumstances. This may involve overlooking critical symptoms, failing to order appropriate tests or making errors in treatment. Expert testimony is often used to prove that the standard of care was not met.
• Causation: It is not enough to show that a mistake occurred. You must also demonstrate that the mistake directly caused your injury. Defendants may argue that your condition resulted from another factor, such as a pre-existing condition or unrelated medical event, so strong medical evidence is essential.
• Damages: Finally, you must prove that the negligence resulted in measurable harm. This may include medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering or long-term disability. Economic damages are calculated based on financial losses, while noneconomic damages reflect the personal impact of your injuries.

Proving medical negligence is never simple, but you don’t have to take on that burden alone. With experienced malpractice attorneys by your side, you can focus on healing while we work to hold negligent providers accountable and pursue the compensation you deserve. Let Steinberg, Goodman & Kalish be your advocates during this battle.

Medical Malpractice And Medical Negligence FAQs

In the aftermath of a medical mistake that causes harm, patients often don’t know where to turn or how to get the help they need. Below are some questions frequently asked of our medical malpractice team at the Chicago law firm of Steinberg, Goodman & Kalish. Our attorneys are prepared to take your case and advocate on your behalf; contact us today, and we will be happy to answer your questions and concerns.

What is the time limit for filing a medical malpractice claim?

Illinois imposes a statute of limitations on medical malpractice cases. Under most circumstances, you have two years from the date you suffered harm or from when you discovered that medical negligence caused your injury to take legal action. If you file outside the allowed time frame, the court may dismiss your case.

There are exceptions to the two-year statute of limitations. Anyone under the age of 18 at the time of a medical negligence injury has up to eight years after the incident date to file a medical malpractice claim. However, they must file before turning 22 years old.

I signed an informed consent form. Will that bar me from recovering damages?

The consent form informs you of the potential risks associated with the procedure or treatment you will receive and gives you permission with this knowledge. While failing to obtain informed consent may amount to medical negligence on the part of a health care professional, signing this form does not necessarily prevent you from seeking to recover compensation for malpractice.

Consent forms only provide certain indemnity to health care professionals and facilities. By signing such a form, you acknowledge having received a warning of the potential adverse outcomes and waive your right to take legal action if you suffer such effects. It does not, however, prevent you from filing a medical malpractice lawsuit for negligence that occurs during such a procedure and causes you injury or illness.

How much is my medical malpractice claim worth?

The value of damages you recover in your medical malpractice claim will depend on several factors. There is no set range for these types of cases, as factors including the severity and type of injury or illness you suffered, your total economic losses and the value of your noneconomic losses will all contribute to the damages you can recover.

Is there a limit on the damages I can recover?

No, Illinois does not cap the damages you can recover through a medical malpractice lawsuit. Therefore, you may seek financial compensation for your full economic and noneconomic losses to be made as close to financially whole as possible.

What Should You Do If You Suspect Medical Malpractice?

If you suspect medical negligence caused your adverse health effects, you’re likely unsure of where to turn or how to move forward. Taking the following steps may help you protect your rights and interests:

• Seek assistance from another physician
• Consult with a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer
• Do not discuss your suspicions or make accusations against the involved health care providers or facility
• Request copies of your medical records
• Refrain from posting allegations on social media or elsewhere online
• Keep a journal of your experience, including details on what happened, your symptoms and the effect of the malpractice on your life

Taking the right steps after suffering injury or illness due to a medical mistake will play a vital role in helping to recover the damages you are owed.

Schedule A Free Consultation With A Medical Malpractice Attorney

Our medical malpractice lawyers offer a free initial consultation and case evaluation. To schedule your free appointment, contact us at 872-270-3625 or send us an email through our website. We look forward to telling you more about how we can help you with your potential claims.