On November 16, 2022, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled in favor of HSPRD’s client, Brian Less, on an interlocutory appeal in Less v. Mercy Hospital et al. The case concerns the tragic shooting death of Dayna Less and two other innocent victims at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center on November 19, 2018. HSPRD attorneys Matt Piers, Mark Dym, Kate Schwartz, and Justin Tresnowski are the lead attorneys on the case.
Since the outset of discovery in the case, Defendant Mercy Hospital has refused to produce two investigation reports that assess the hospital’s security failures during the 2018 shootings that resulted in Dayna Less’s senseless death four years ago this week. On behalf of Plaintiff Less, HSPRD successfully challenged Mercy’s privilege assertions over the reports in the trial court, prompting Mercy to file an interlocutory appeal. The appellate court rejected Mercy’s privilege claims under both the Illinois Medical Studies Act and the litigation consultant privilege and affirmed the trial court’s orders compelling Mercy to produce the two long-withheld reports.
On behalf of the HSPRD legal team, Attorney Schwartz remarked that “Mercy never had any lawful basis to withhold the investigation reports, and we are gratified that the appellate court acted as promptly as it did to confirm that. We expect the reports to be consistent with the facts that other discovery in this case has already revealed: that, for years, Mercy was well aware of the risk of an active shooter at the hospital but did absolutely nothing to warn or protect Dayna on that tragic day until it was far too late.”
