Florida Medical Malpractice Guide

People who come to see us with medical malpractice cases often want to know if they have a case. With the experience that we have had in medical malpractice cases, we go through three steps to evaluate that. One is liability, meaning did the damage happen, did the doctor, the hospital, the nursing staff engage in conduct that was negligent, or in the medical malpractice language, did it fall below the standard of care for that particular event? If that answer is yes, we go to step two. Step two is called causation. What that means is did the acts or inactions of the healthcare provider cause the injury? If you don’t have it, then there’s no case. If it did, then we go to step three. That is damages. Did the bad acts cause the damages we’re complaining about, the damages that we’re talking about with the client? That may sound obvious. Sometimes it’s not, though, in a complicated case.

Damages, unfortunately, have to be substantial. Malpractice cases are very expensive cases. Because the expenses come out of the client’s share of a recovery, the damages of the case have to be large enough, substantial enough, to support the case. The very last thing that we want to do is bring a case if there aren’t enough damages. We explain it fully with the client at the front end because the last thing we want to have happen at the end of the life of a case if that we get paid and our client does not. Our attorney fee percentage is off the gross recovery, meaning the expenses come out of the client’s recovery off the top and the client basically gets what’s left. If we’re getting the overwhelming majority of the case or we suspect that’s going to be the case, then we tell that client we cannot help.

There are other means of addressing the case through administrative complaints with the agency for healthcare administration and we go through those types of things, as well. We would not be able to handle a malpractice case unless the damages are substantial enough. If you have a case, whether the damages are great or maybe not so great, come call us so we can point you in the right direction. We could educate you about your case, and figure out a plan that suits you best.

We have handled many medical malpractice cases in northeast Florida where we practice, including Duval County, Nassau County, and surrounding areas. Looking back over those cases, there is one mistake that is head and shoulders above other mistakes that we see made. That is people wait too long to get to a lawyer. Florida’s Medical Malpractice Act has a two-year statute of limitation period, meaning you have two years from the date that you suspected something negligent happened to bring a case. Two years goes by very quickly. Many times, we will get a case where much of that period has gone. It doesn’t leave much time to evaluate cases. These cases are expensive and before a lawyer will advance those costs, he’s got to have some idea of what the case is about. If you don’t give a lawyer enough time, you’re going to lose the services of that lawyer perhaps. You’re limiting his ability to do an effective evaluation. That’s the main mistake that we see being made.

The other is not getting medical care to address the problem that the healthcare provider inflicted upon you, for whatever reason. Sometimes, that is put upon the injured plaintiff, ironically, at a trial. If you’ve suffered a medical malpractice in Nassau or Duval County, don’t wait. Call immediately. We will sit down, and at a very minimum, educate you about medical malpractice, the ins and outs of it, and the practicalities of suing your own doctor, if that’s the case. We’ll figure out a plan that makes sense. Call us and we’ll sit down and chat.

Sooner or later, a client will ask about the value of the case. We always tell them we don’t know because the mechanics of valuing a case come about as you get into the case. There are certain aspects of the case that factor in, such as the severity of the injury, whether that injury is going to produce long lasting effects that affect your ability to engage in your normal daily life, and whether you are out of work because of it. As such, valuing a case takes time.

We can begin to establish a value range once we’ve gathered information, collected evidence, and have a better handle on what the loss is according to the state’s damages. If you feel like you’ve had a loss due to a medical negligence or a healthcare provider in Nassau County or Duval County or the outlying areas, call us. We’ll sit down, we’ll go through it, and we’ll figure out a plan that suits you best.

We are often asked how long it will take to wrap up a malpractice case. In northeast Florida, Nassau County, Duval County, and the surrounding areas, it takes 9 to 14 months at an absolute minimum, probably longer, simply because malpractice cases are expensive and complicated. There are lots of things that have to happen before you are even allowed to file a lawsuit. It takes an extremely long time to penalize cases. We’re required, under most circumstances, to hire professionals to evaluate the cases. An affidavit is needed that says there’s a reasonable prospect of a malpractice. That takes time, so 9 to 14 months is really a baseline to go to have the case prepared.

Once the case is filed, you can expect a couple of years in litigation on average. These are very complex cases. They’re very complicated cases. These are questions we handle at the very beginning in initial conferences with clients so that their expectations are set appropriately. These are not cases that are over and done with quickly in a couple of weeks. If you have suffered a loss due to the negligence of a healthcare provider, or a doctor, or hospital, call us. We’ll go over things and see how best we can help you.

Often in the initial conference with clients regarding a potential medical malpractice claim, we end up talking about fees. It’s a very unique conversation because the medical insurance industry back in 2004 passed a constitutional amendment that drastically reduced the attorney fees that we would be allowed to charge. The lawyers recognized it for what it was very quickly on both sides, the plaintiffs and the defendants. A waiver document was created simply because malpractice cases are complicated. They’re expensive. They’re time consuming. They’re labor intensive.

Lawyers who do this cannot function without the fees being back to historically percentages that the former Supreme Court laid out. It’s a scale of 30%, 40% and some other percentages in larger cases. The labor restores that to fees basically 30% and 40% and there are different percentages in other kinds of malpractice cases. That’s the attorney fee cost. There are litigation expenses, court costs, expenses of the case that can be pretty high that can end up in six figures and complicated cases, cases that go to trial, certainly will be in that range. Those are all good questions to be asking, questions that get answered at the initial conference. If you have a malpractice case in Duval County, Nassau County, or any of the surrounding areas, call us. We’ll sit down. We’ll go over this and a lot more. We’ll figure out a way to best help you.

When we meet with clients, we discuss with them whether it’s a good idea to talk to the insurance company. There are two answers to this. One is yes and that has to do with their own insurance companies that are helping to pay bills and most wages and things like that. You have a responsibility to cooperate with your own insurance company. You want to because you want them to take care of the matters that come under their policy. With regards to the insurance company for the other side, however, whether it’s the hospital or the doctor or the nurse or what have you, the answer is emphatically no. They have the interest of the healthcare provider in mind, not yours. All of their efforts to obtain information is for the benefit of their insured, not yours.

When we meet with clients, in the very first conversation, we tell them you will not talk to the other side’s insurance company. We tell them, if they get contacted, to give the insurance representative our contact information. At that point, it is illegal for the insurance company to talk to you about the case. They will call our office and then we will have a line of communication from our office to theirs, which is the way it should be. If you have a medical malpractice case which has occurred in Nassau County, Duval County, or any of the surrounding areas, call us. We’ll sit down. We’ll go over those things and a whole lot more. We’ll figure out how best to help you.

Medical malpractice cases come in different forms. Do you have a case when the doctor didn’t tell you the procedure that he or she performed? The short answer is yes. Again, malpractice cases are complicated but that is what’s called an informed consent case. Healthcare providers cannot perform anything upon you unless they tell you what they’re going to do, the risks and benefits of it, and get you to consent to the procedure before it happens. If they do not do that, that is what is known as a breach of a standard of care, meaning it’s a negligent action or inaction. If you are hurt by it, you can prosecute a medical malpractice claim. If that has happened to you in Nassau County or Duval County or any of the surrounding areas, call us today. We’ll sit down and talk about it and see how best we can help you.

Many times, clients will not understand what happened in their medical malpractice case. A communication error that we often see is that an assistant or a nurse practitioner will see something and either not communicate it to the treating physician, miscommunicate it to the treating physician, or communicate it properly and a treating physician not see it. All of those provide a basis for a medical malpractice claim. There are procedures and methods of communication that healthcare providers are very familiar with and they should follow them in each and every case.

Many times, for whatever reason, they don’t or it hasn’t been followed and it can be to the detriment, sometimes very severely, of a patient. We had a case rather recently within the last year when that happened. A lady was on home health and she did not have her meds done appropriately. The nurse saw it and reported it to the supervising physician. The physician did not look at it. This lady was catastrophically injured as a result. We successfully prosecute that claim. That’s what a communication error is. If you have something like that, call us and we will sit down with it. We’ll go over it and see how best we can help you.

Sometimes, we get calls where a patient has been treated for something and their wound has gotten worse since the treatment. The first thing we tell that client is get medical care from someone else. If you’re not satisfied with the treatment that you’ve been getting and things seem to be getting worse, get a second opinion. That happens all the time in the medical field. Get a second opinion because it may be the doctor is not doing things properly. It may be that the doctor is doing things properly and your wound is getting worse for some other unrelated medical reasons. Getting a second opinion can help you be educated about your own circumstances.

If something wrong has happened and the second doctor can help you, then you can certainly switch doctors. If you think something like that has happened in Duval County or Nassau County where we practice or the outlying areas, call us today. We’ll sit down. We’ll go through that. We do a lot of counseling with people who are not satisfied with their treatment. Whether it constitutes a medical malpractice case or not, the counseling is educational. It can help you at a minimum. If there is a malpractice case, then certainly we can sit down with you, help you, and figure out what’s best for you.

Medical malpractice cases are very specialized personal injury cases. It is extremely important that in your search for the right medical malpractice attorney you find one with experience. These are some of the most complicated cases that you could ever be involved in. They are difficult to handle for those who are not well-versed in the laws connected with medical malpractice. There are a set of laws on the books in Florida that govern and control medical malpractice cases. Always ask your lawyer: Are you familiar with the Florida Medical Malpractice Act? Have you handled medical malpractice cases? How many? Have you handled one similar to the one I have?

Typically, these are not cases for young inexperienced lawyers. You need a lawyer who’s been through it, been in the trenches, has filed these claims, has navigated through the Medical Malpractice Act and knows what to do. Because if mistakes are made, the claim can be lost. Time is short in medical malpractice cases so it is extremely important that you get a very experienced lawyer who can help you through this process. If you suffered what you think is a loss at the hands of a healthcare provider, hospital, doctor, call us right away. We will sit down and go over things and see how best we can help.