Bill Text: IL SB1568 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Counties Code. Provides that a county that is or may be liable to indemnify a physician who has been appointed or designated by the county or the coroner's office to perform autopsies shall (rather than may) intervene in the action against the physician and shall be permitted to appear and defend.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-04 - Referred to Assignments [SB1568 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-SB1568-Introduced.html

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104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2025 and 2026 SB1568 Introduced 2/4/2025, by Sen. Sally J. Turner SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
55 ILCS 5/5-1003.5
Amends the Counties Code. Provides that a county that is or may be liable to indemnify a physician who has been appointed or designated by the county or the coroner's office to perform autopsies shall (rather than may) intervene in the action against the physician and shall be permitted to appear and defend.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning local government.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Counties Code is amended by changing
Section 5-1003.5 as follows:
(55 ILCS 5/5-1003.5)
Sec. 5-1003.5. Indemnification for autopsies performed by
physicians. A county shall indemnify and hold harmless a
physician who has been appointed or designated by the county
or the coroner's office to perform autopsies for all of the
physician's acts, omissions, decisions, or conduct arising out
of the scope of the physician's duties of performing autopsies
for the county, except those involving willful or wanton
misconduct. A physician who is made a party defendant to an
action arising out of the physician's acts, omissions,
decisions, or conduct arising out of the scope of the
physician's duties of performing autopsies for the county
shall, within 10 days after service of process upon the
physician, notify the county of the fact that the action has
been instituted and that the physician has been made a party
defendant to the action. The notice must be in writing and be
filed in the office of the State's Attorney and also in the
office of the county clerk either by the physician or by the

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physician's agent or attorney. The notice shall state the name
of the physician, that the physician has been served with
process and made a party defendant to an action wherein it is
claimed that a person has suffered injury to the person's body
or property caused by that physician, the title and number of
the case, the court in which the action is pending, and the
date the physician was served with process in the action and
made a party defendant to the action.
The county that is or may be liable to indemnify the
physician shall may intervene in the action against the
physician and shall be permitted to appear and defend. The
duty of the county to indemnify any physician for any judgment
recovered against the physician is conditioned upon receiving
notice of the filing of any such action in the manner and form
described in this Section.
(Source: P.A. 103-922, eff. 1-1-25.)