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Florida Medical Malpractice Caps on Damages Not Retroactive, Says Florida Supreme Court

When the Florida State Legislature under the governorship of Jeb Bush passed an arbitrary cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, it was ostensibly to control the cost doctors had to pay for malpractice insurance. Not surprisingly, the American Tort Reform Association and the Federal Chamber of Commerce lobbied heavily for the legislation. Since the law went into effect, it has encountered opposition – and a few setbacks.

In March of 2014 the Florida Supreme Court gutted the heart of the law, removing the caps in the case of a patient's death. According to the Honorable Judge Fred Lewis, the legislation was the result of a “manufactured crisis,” designed to save “a modest amount for the many by imposing devastating costs on a few.”  Legislators at the time the bill was being considered claimed that the high cost of malpractice insurance was driving doctors out of the state and discouraging Florida physicians from attempting “high-risk procedures.”

In writing the court's decision, Judge Lewis noted that according to statistics, the number of physicians practicing in the Sunshine State actually grew during the so-called “crisis.” While last year’s Florida Supreme Court ruling doesn't affect cases that were resolved between 2003 and 2014, it does apply to malpractice lawsuits that have come up since – as well as those predating enactment of the law. 

Recently, Florida's caps suffered another blow. At the center of the recent decision is a case in which a woman suffered a serious and permanent injury to her leg along with chronic pain as the result of an unnecessary procedure. The operation that caused the injury took place in January of 2003 – eight months prior to the passage of the legislation capping non-economic damages. The woman and her husband filed a lawsuit against the physician in 2006, well within Florida's 4-year statute of limitations for injury cases involving medical malpractice.

The jury in that case awarded the couple $1.5 million in non-economic damages.  After that trial, however, counsel for the defendant asked the damages to be reduced to $500,000 in accordance with the Florida law – despite the fact that the plaintiff's cause of action predated its passage.  The judge in the original case, the Honorable Kevin Emas, rejected the argument.

The case went through the appeal process over the next few years, finally arriving in the Florida Supreme Court in November of 2013. A year and a half later, Judge Lewis and his colleagues on the bench made the final ruling: the law capping non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases cannot be applied retroactively.

This is another victory for plaintiffs in the ongoing battle between vested moneyed interests and injury victims that hold them accountable.

For more information about medical malpractice, visit Levin Papantonio’s Medical Malpractice web page.

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