Articles Tagged with medical malpractice attorney Orlando

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One of the most frequently-asked questions of an Orlando medical malpractice lawyer is: How long does a medical negligence claim take? It’s an important one, so we understand why it is raised so often. However, the best answer we can give is: It depends. 

Some medical negligence claims can take a few months to resolve. Others can take several years. In cases wherein plaintiff must lobby a state lawmaker to file a legislative claims bill in order to collect on a trial court’s medical malpractice verdict against a public hospital or practitioner, it’s not unheard of for it to take over a decade. The same is true of general negligence claims, but one of the main reasons medical negligence claims can take so much longer is not only are they more complex, plaintiffs must meet the pre-lawsuit screening standards set forth in Chapter 766 of Florida Statutes, which deals with medical malpractice and related matters. These include the requirement to have an expert witness who meets the qualifications as set forth in F.S. 766.102, required notice before filing action, court-ordered arbitration, mandatory mediation and settlement conferences and immunity for a number of entities.

This is why many Orlando medical malpractice lawyers and injury attorneys will try if possible NOT to have the case classified as such. Although some cases can be categorized no other way, not all injuries that occur in a hospital are the result of medical negligence.

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Medical malpractice lawsuits in Florida are an indication to the state’s Department of Health that a doctor may be a potential danger to current and future patients. Regardless of the outcome of the case, the state is required by law to review those cases, identify problem doctors and take appropriate action on their license to practice medicine. Doctors could receive an emergency suspension order, probation, long-term suspension or revocation.

However, a recent investigation by journalists at The Sun Sentinel revealed that of the 24,000 closed state and federal medical malpractice lawsuits in Florida over the last 10 years, disciplinary charges were filed by the state only 128 times. That breaks down to one-half of 1 percent. A majority of medical malpractice lawsuits in Florida are settled prior to trial, but reporters discovered even those that ended in a jury verdict for the plaintiff rarely resulted in any action from the state board.

What this means is doctors who have been proven to place their patients’ well-being and lives and jeopardy are continuing to practice without sanction, restriction or oversight. Medical malpractice insurance typically covers the monetary damages as determined, and the physician continues on without further action.  Continue reading →

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The Florida Supreme Court late last month ruled in favor of a plaintiff fighting the enforcement of an arbitration agreement following a dispute regarding the care of her infant son, who was stillborn.

In the case of Hernandez v. Crespo, the state high court ruled the arbitration agreement between the child’s mother and the women’s clinic from which she was receiving treatment was invalid. Had the court upheld the agreement as binding, plaintiff would have been forced to handle her dispute through a private arbitration process, rather than the public courts.

Given that there are many downsides to the arbitration process for plaintiffs, this ruling is likely to have a positive effect for medical malpractice plaintiffs in Florida. Arbitration agreements have become the center of numerous types of civil disputes, from nursing home abuse to product liability. Companies are increasingly requiring customers enter into these agreements that are often unfair. In many cases, customers (or in this case, patients,) may not understand what exactly they are giving up. Continue reading →

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Plaintiff in the medical malpractice case of Tillson v. Lane will have the opportunity to take his case to trial, following the Vermont Supreme Court’s reversal of an earlier trial court ruling that granted summary judgment to defendant on the “Loss of Chance” doctrine.

The “Loss of Chance” doctrine, while permitted in several jurisdictions, is not recognized in Florida, and neither is it recognized in Vermont, where this case originated. Under the “loss of chance” doctrine, plaintiffs are compensated for the extent to which a defendant’s negligence reduced victim’s likelihood of achieving a better outcome, assuming that likelihood was reduced by less than 51 percent.

The idea is that rather than treating a medical malpractice case as an all-or-nothing issue, claimants should be able to pursue action against health care providers whose actions or inaction resulted in loss of chance of a better outcome or of avoiding adverse consequences. But again, Florida has expressly rejected this doctrine, and so has Vermont, by essentially finding that health care providers should only be accountable for the damages proximately caused by negligent acts or omissions. So it was in this context that the Tillson case arose. Continue reading →

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