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Prescription medication errors | Pharmacist malpractice

What is the statute of limitations for a case involving a perscription medication error in Illinois?

A: In Illinois, the statute of limitations for most lawsuits involving prescription medication errors is two years. This assumes that a private company is providing the medications and not a local governmental entity, in which case the statute of limitations is only one year.

The statute of limitations begins to run when you either knew or reasonably should have known that the injury was wrongfully caused. This is referred to as lawyers as the "discovery rule" because it is the discovery of the wrongful conduct and its effect on you that triggers the running of the statute of limitations.

For example, we represented a woman who was given a wrong medication following a surgery. The medication she was given depressed her white blood cell counts and made her very sick. She was given this medication for about two months before she finally became so ill that she went to the emergency room where the emergency room staff recognized that she had been taking an inappropriate medication for her condition and that it was not the medication which her doctor had ordered following the surgery. Under these circumstances, the statute of limitations for the pharmacist's malpractice began to run the day that she learned in the emergency room that she had been given the wrong medication and that this was what was making her sick. At that point, she would have two years in which to file a lawsuit against the pharmacy that dispensed the wrong medication to her.

Computing the statute of limitations in Illinois for a prescription medication error can be a difficult business, so if there is any confusion as to when the statute of limitations expires, you should promptly consult an experienced Illinois personal injury lawyer.