Florida Supreme Court Asked to Reconsider Medical Malpractice Laws

The case in question is that of Ramona Reyes who died from lung cancer. Reyes’ children had been litigating to recover non-economic damages in lieu of the negligence of physician Francisco Rodriguez. The appeals court apparently confirmed the negligence but followed the Supreme Court precedents in rejecting the lawsuit.

The key objection to the lawsuit is that adult children cannot legally recover non-economic damages in a malpractice lawsuit. This is in contrast to the fact that adult children can recover such damages in other types of personal injury lawsuits.

Over the past few years, the Florida Supreme Court has taken an increasingly liberal approach towards medical malpractice law. A number of decisions in 2014 and 2017 have waived theoretical limitations imposed by the law. A 2017 decision, for instance, scrapped the maximum statutory cap placed on the amount of non-economic damages.

Following up on these developments, the appeals court has now submitted its objections to the malpractice law as a ‘question of great public importance’ to the highest court in the state. This is the legal way of asking the Supreme Court to consider reinterpreting the law.

It remains to be seen how the Supreme Court takes this development. A number of liberal judges who had been behind the landmark 2014 and 2017 malpractice rulings have more recently been replaced with relatively conservative judges. However, there is still a nationwide trend that is seeing malpractice laws more liberally being interpreted in favor of the plaintiffs.

If you have been a victim of medical malpractice, contact us for help today.