§ 5/2-1003 Discovery and depositions
§ 2-1003. Discovery and depositions.
(a) Any party who by pleading alleges any claim for bodily injury or disease, including mental health injury or disease, shall be deemed to waive any privilege between the injured person and each health care provider who has furnished care at any time to the injured person. “Health care provider” means any person or entity who delivers or has delivered health care services, including diagnostic services, and includes, but is not limited to, physicians, psychologists, chiropractors, nurses, mental health workers, therapists, and other healing art practitioners. Any party alleging any such claim for bodily or mental health injury or disease shall, upon written request of any other party who has appeared in the action, sign and deliver within 28 days to the requesting party a separate Consent authorizing each person or entity who has provided health care at any time to the allegedly injured person to:
(1) furnish the requesting party or the party's attorney a complete copy of the chart or record of health care in the possession of the provider, including reports sent to any third party, including any records generated by other health care providers and in the possession of the health care provider, and including radiographic films of any type;
(2) permit the requesting party or the party's attorney to inspect the original chart or record of health care during regular business hours and at the regular business location of the health care provider, upon written request made not less than 7 days prior to the inspection;
(3) accept and consider charts and other records of health care by others, radiographic films, and documents, including reports, deposition transcripts, and letters, furnished to the health care provider by the requesting party or the party's attorney, before giving testimony in any deposition or trial or other hearing;
(4) confer with the requesting party's attorney before giving testimony in any deposition or trial or other hearing and engage in discussion with the attorney on the subjects of the health care provider's observations related to the allegedly injured party's health, including the following: the patient history, whether charted or otherwise recorded or not; the health care provider's opinions related to the patient's state of health, prognosis, etiology, or cause of the patient's state of health at any time, and the nature and quality of care by other health care providers, including whether any standard of care was or was not breached; and the testimony the health care provider would give in response to any point of interrogation, and the education, experience, and qualifications of the health care provider.
The form of the Consent furnished pursuant to this subsection (a) shall recite that it is signed and delivered under the authority of this subsection. Any variation in the form of the Consent required by any health care provider, not subject to the jurisdiction of the circuit court before which the action is pending, to whom a request is directed under subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection (a) shall be accepted by the allegedly injured party and the revised form requested by the health care provider shall be signed and delivered to the requesting party within 28 days after it is tendered for signature.
All documents and information obtained pursuant to a Consent shall be considered confidential. Disclosure may be made only to the parties to the action, their attorneys, their insurers' representatives, and witnesses and consultants whose testimony concerns medical treatment prognosis, or rehabilitation, including expert witnesses.
A request for a Consent under this subsection (a) does not preclude such subsequent requests as may reasonably be made seeking to expand the scope of an earlier Consent which was limited to less than all the authority permitted by subdivisions (1) through (4) of this subsection (a) or seeking additional Consents for other health care providers.
The provisions of this subsection (a) do not restrict the right of any party to discovery pursuant to rule. Should a plaintiff refuse to timely comply with a request for signature and delivery of a consent permitted by this subsection (a) the
court, on motion, shall issue an order authorizing disclosure to the party or parties requesting said consent of all records and information mentioned herein or order the cause dismissed pursuant to Section 2-619(a)(9).
(a-1) Discovery, admissions of fact and of genuineness of documents and answers to interrogatories shall be in accordance with rules.
(b) The taking of depositions, whether for use in evidence or for purposes of discovery in proceedings in this State or elsewhere, and fees and charges in connection therewith, shall be in accordance with rules.
(c) A party shall not be required to furnish the names or addresses of his or her witnesses, except that upon motion of any party disclosure of the identity of expert witnesses shall be made to all parties and the court in sufficient time in advance of trial so as to insure a fair and equitable preparation of the case by all parties.
(d) Whenever the defendant in any litigation in this State has the right to demand a physical or mental examination of the plaintiff pursuant to statute or Supreme Court Rule, relative to the occurrence and extent of injuries or damages for which claim is made, or in connection with the plaintiff's capacity to exercise any right plaintiff has, or would have but for a finding based upon such examination, the plaintiff has the right to have his or her attorney, or such other person as the plaintiff may wish, present at such physical or mental examination.
(e) No person or organization shall be required to furnish claims, loss or risk management information held or provided by an insurer, which information is described in Section 143.10a of the “Illinois Insurance Code”.[FN1]
(f) This amendatory Act of 1995 applies to causes of action filed on and after its effective date.
[FN1] 215 ILCS 5/143.10a.
VALIDITY
Public Act 89-7, which amended this section, has been held unconstitutional in its entirety by the Illinois Supreme Court in the case of Best v. Taylor Machine Works, 1997, 689 N.E.2d 1057, 228 Ill.Dec. 636, 179 Ill.2d 367.
This section as amended by P.A. 89-7 also has been held unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court in the case of Kunkel v. Walton, 1997, 689 N.E.2d 1047, 228 Ill.Dec. 626, 179 Ill.2d 519.