Does Florida Have Medical Malpractice Damage Caps?
When you turn to a healthcare provider for care, you expect him or her to properly diagnose and treat you and to ensure that when you leave his or her office, you do so with a positive prognosis. The last thing you expect a doctor, nurse, practitioner, or any other type of healthcare provider to do is harm you. Yet, medical malpractice, which occurs when a healthcare professional deviates from standards in his or her profession and thereby causes injury to a patient, is an eerily common occurrence. How common? It is the third leading cause of death in the United States and accounts for more than $3 billion in lawsuit settlement payouts each year. That amounts to approximately one payout ever 43 minutes. Moreover, studies suggest that medical malpractice accounts for roughly 200,000 patient deaths each year. With those kinds of numbers, it is not unthinkable that you or a loved one should fall victim to medical malpractice.
If a healthcare provider has caused harm to you or someone you care for, you may be able to pursue compensation for your damages via a medical malpractice suit. For years, Florida law capped non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment, loss of capacity for enjoyment of life, disfigurement, and other nonfinancial losses. Economic damages, such as medical expenses, physical therapy, in-home care costs, and funeral expenses, were never capped.
What Happened to Florida’s Medical Malpractice Caps
The caps, found in section 766.118 of the Florida Statutes, limited non-economic damages against practitioners to $500,000 or $1 million per claimant depending on the severity of the injury, with different limits for other defendants and for emergency care. The Florida Supreme Court struck down those caps in wrongful death cases in Estate of McCall v. United States in 2014 and in personal injury cases in North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan in 2017, finding that they violated the Florida Constitution. As a result, juries in Florida medical malpractice cases can award non-economic damages based on the evidence, without those statutory limits.
Other Limits Still Apply
That does not make these cases easy. Florida still imposes strict presuit requirements on medical malpractice claims, including a medical expert’s opinion supporting the claim and formal notice to each provider. The deadlines are also short: generally two years from when the malpractice was or should have been discovered, and no more than four years from the date it occurred, with limited exceptions. Claims against government-run hospitals can also be limited by sovereign immunity rules.
Work With a Miami Medical Malpractice Attorney
If you or a loved one is the victim of medical malpractice, you have a long, uphill battle ahead of you. Only 15 percent of personal injury lawsuits filed each year involve medical malpractice claims. Of those, more than 80 percent end with no payment to the injured party and his or her family. You can imagine what these numbers mean for non-economic damages.
Non-economic damages are just as debilitating as economic damages, if not more so. Our team at Spencer Morgan Law fights on clients’ behalves to prove this and to ensure they recover the full amount they rightfully deserve. If you wish to recover all that you deserve for your pain, suffering, and more, schedule your free consultation with one of our Miami medical malpractice lawyers today.