Recent Florida News
March 2024 Newsletter
Campaign donations linked to expanding litigation laws in New York In pursuit of new avenues that would allow for an expanded ability to file liability lawsuits in New York, personal injury lawyers have pumped an increasing amount of money into the campaign coffers of...
Who Pays When Your Doctor’s AI Goes Rogue?
Doctors using new artificial intelligence tools to help them diagnose and treat their patients say they wish Congress would provide some clarity on a big unanswered question: Who pays if AI makes a mistake? Advancements in AI promise to improve care, but only if...
January 2024 Newsletter
Montana maintains liability limits, but risks remain A jackpot jury award in Montana was reduced in alignment with the state’s reasonable limits on non-economic damages, but not before a sixteen-month period of uncertainty that left the medical liability climate at...
Current Medical Liability Laws
| Damage Caps | For physicians $500,000 cap on non-economic damages per claimant with any one physician not responsible for more than $500,000. For nonpractitioners, $750,000 cap on non-economic damages. The cap increases to $1 million in non-economic damages for physicians if the negligence resulted in death or a permanent vegetative state or if the court finds that a manifest injustice would occur unless the non-economic damages cap was increased because the non-economic harm sustained by the patient was particularly severe and the defendant’s negligence caused a catastrophic injury to the patient. (2003) |
| Joint Liability Reform | Yes. Defendants are responsible only for their proportionate share of negligence. |
| Collateral Source Reform | Yes, and the court must reduce damages by the amounts paid to the claimant from collateral sources. If a right of subrogation exists, there is no reduction in damages. Benefits received by the government sources are not considered collateral benefits. |
| Attorney Fees Limited | Patients receive 70% of the first $250,000 awarded and 90% of the remainder of the award. Attorneys will still get payment for court and witness expenses. (2004) Patients may waive contingency fee limits. |
| Periodic Payments Permitted | Yes, for future economic awards exceeding $250,000, the court must order periodic payments at the request of any party unless the court determines that manifest injustice would result to any party. |