Do You Know About Florida's Medical Malpractice Caps?

Patricia Doherty

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 342

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The 2003 Florida Legislature with former Governeor Jeb Bush's backing passed caps on medical malpractice cases taking the decision of the amount of fair compensation of injuries away from the jury. Florida law has a $150,000.00 cap for "pain and suffering" for emergency room negligence and $500,000.00 caps for other cases. If medical negligence causes the wrongful death of a patient the cap may be $1 million or $1.5 million depending on the case. The constitutionality of these caps may be challenged in the near future when a case reaches the Florida Supreme Court.

A devoted husband died as a result of routine knee surgery in 2003 ,when an undiagnosed clot traveled from his leg to his lungs on the day he was to return home to his wife. The jury awarded $2.8 million for pain and suffering of his surviving wife and about $430,000 for medical and funeral expenses. In another case a jury rendered a $217 million dollar verdict for a man left a quadriplegic when the doctor misdiagnosed his stroke. Neither of these victims of medical malpractice will recover what the juries of Florida citizens felt was fair unless the Florida Supreme Court finds the caps unconstitiutional. How would you feel if this was you?

For more information on this subject matter, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.