Broward medical malpractice lawyer

Published on: June 30, 2017

Florida Supreme Court Strikes Down Medical Malpractice Damages Cap

According to a recent news article from the Orlando Sentinel, the Florida Supreme Court has just ruled that the existing damages cap on medical malpractice lawsuits is unconstitutional. The bill in question was signed into law by then-Governor Jeb Bush in 2003. It was very controversial at the time and is no longer the law in our state.

The judges held, through their majority opinion, that caps on noneconomic damages are arbitrary, serve only to reduce a plaintiff’s recovery in the case of serious injuries, and are only for the benefit of the insurance companies. The state officials and Bush originally justified the law on the basis that we were facing what they called an insurance crisis. Continue reading →

Published on: March 4, 2015

Uriell v. Regents of UC – $550k Failure to Diagnose Verdict Affirmed

By Dean Freeman

When it comes to medical malpractice, sometimes it’s as much what the physicians and health care professionals did not do as what they did.

This was the case for plaintiffs in Uriell v. Regents of UC, who accused a surgeon and surgeon’s employer of failure to diagnose breast cancer resulting in the wrongful death of patient, who was a wife and mother of three children.

A central question here was not only whether the doctor had breached the applicable standard of care, but also whether it had much effect. The type of cancer the patient had was almost certainly terminal. However, there was a real question as to how much longer she might have lived had the malignancy been diagnosed sooner.

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Published on: February 22, 2015

Monfore v. Phillips – $1M Medical Liability Verdict Upheld

By Dean Freeman

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has a warning for defendants who are the subject of multi-defendant litigation: “Beware: When a fellow litigant settles on the eve of trial, you can’t bank on the right to claim surprise and rewrite your case from top to bottom.”

That is, in an age when virtually all cases settle in part or in whole – many just days or weeks before trial – no one can claim they are caught off-guard when that happens, even if it leaves one or two defendants to contend with greater liability while others have settled with plaintiff for a lesser amount in exchange for being excused as a defendant.

That’s what happened in the case of Monfore v. Phillips, which originated in Oklahoma.

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