Brennan Burtker LLC congratulates Partner Lee Williams and Associate Elizabeth Polit on securing a defense verdict on behalf of their client, a clinically integrated network, after a 3-week medical malpractice trial before the Honorable John H. Ehrlich in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. Plaintiffs claimed the network controlled and had the right to control the independent medical decisions of a family medicine physician who allegedly failed to diagnose melanoma in a young female patient. Plaintiffs further claimed that the standard of care required the family medicine physician to refer the patient to a dermatologist because she was at increased risk for developing melanoma due to the fact that she had more than 50 moles all over her body, and that a re-excision of the at-issue mole was not adequately performed for accurate pathological diagnosis. As a result, the patient was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer and required 13 months of immunotherapy. The Defense argued that the network did not control or have the right to control the independent medical decisions of the family medicine physician or any physician in its network. The Defense further argued that the family medicine physician exercised her own independent medical judgment and that she appropriately treated the patient in accordance with the standard of care. The standard of care did not require referral to a dermatologist and the excision was adequate for pathologic diagnosis. Plaintiffs asked the jury to award them between $7,950,000 and $10,300,000. The Jury returned a verdict of not guilty for the defense.