Lawrence Brownstein Professional Liability Law Blog on Lawyers.com

About the author: Since 1988, Lawrence Brownstein has been a litigation and trial attorney prosecuting and defending serious personal injury and wrongful death claims involving automobile accidents, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, medical malpractice, defective products, slip and fall accidents; and, nursing home negligence. He has literally handled hundreds of cases involving brain injury; neck and back injuries; closed head injuries; injury to the knees and joints; spinal chord injuries; orthopedic and neurological injuries, neck and back surgery; knee, shoulder and elbow surgeries; pressure sores (decubitus ulcers); bone fractures.  With respect to medical malpractice, Mr. Brownstein has handled numerous cases involving emergency room medicine; orthopedics; neurology; neurosurgery; psychiatry; internal medicine; vascular surgery; general surgery; oncology; radiology; dermatology; misdiagnosis; and, failure to diagnose. Lawrence Brownstein is the founding member of the Law Firm of Lawrence E. Brownstein, P.A. which is located in West Palm Beach, Florida and the firm handles serious personal injury, professional negligence and wrongful death cases throughout South Florida.

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MEDICAL MALPRACTICE IN FLORIDA: WHEN AND HOW

TO FILE THE LAWSUIT

Did you know that a medical malpractice law suit in Florida cannot be maintained until and unless a doctor of the same or similar specialty as the defendant doctor has reviewed the case and stated by way of affidavit that reasonable grounds exist for a claim for medical malpractice to be made? That=s right. A case will be dismissed or abated without having an expert doctor review the matter before hand and provide such an opinion. Further, once the case has been reviewed and an affidavit obtained, a letter, called a Notice of Intent to Litigate, must be sent to the defendant health care providers, with a copy of the affidavit attached, before the law suit can be initiated. This is to allow the defendant health care providers 90 days to evaluate the claim and see if they, too, can have a health care provider of the same or similar specialty review the matter and provide an affidavit stating that no reasonable grounds exist for the claim. During that 90 day period, no law suit can be filed with the Court. However, the parties may engage in discovery-obtaining medical records, medical bills, and taking oral statements from the claimant and the defendant health care providers. This discovery is designed to help each party further evaluate their case with an eye towards settlement. At the end of the 90 day period, the defendant health care providers have three options: (1) deny the claim by obtaining an affidavit from a physician in the same or similar specialty as the defendant health care provider stating that the matter has been reviewed and no grounds exist for a claim for medical malpractice; (2) make a monetary offer to settle; or, (3) admit liability and request arbitration.  A case must be brought within a specific time frame called a statute of limitations period, otherwise the case will be barred. In Florida, that time frame is two (2) years from the date the negligent incident occurred or two (2) years from when the negligence should have been discovered, whichever is later. However, in no case can a medical malpractice claim be made  more than four (4) years from when the negligent act occurred unless a child under eight (8) years old is the injured party. If that is the case, the four years is not applicable if it lapses before the child=s eighth birthday.  The statute of limitations can be extended under certain circumstances. Calculating the statute of limitations is technical ans a lawyer should always be consulted well before the two year time frame referenced above has elapsed.