Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Miami

Medical malpractice cases in Florida are unlike any other type of personal injury claim. Florida has built one of the most procedurally demanding medical-malpractice statutes in the country, with mandatory pre-suit investigation, a 90-day pre-suit notice period, expert affidavits required at the threshold, and shorter statutes of limitations than ordinary negligence cases. If a doctor, hospital, surgeon, anesthesiologist, or other healthcare provider in Miami-Dade County caused you serious harm, you need a medical malpractice lawyer who knows Florida Chapter 766 inside and out.

What Counts as Medical Malpractice in Florida

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider's treatment falls below the "prevailing professional standard of care" and that failure causes injury or death. The standard of care is what a reasonably prudent similar healthcare provider would have done under the same circumstances. Common examples we handle in Miami include:

• Surgical errors — operating on the wrong site, leaving instruments inside the body, anesthesia errors, nerve injuries from improper positioning
• Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of cancer, stroke, heart attack, sepsis, or pulmonary embolism
• Medication errors — wrong drug, wrong dose, dangerous drug interactions, allergic reactions to documented allergies
• Birth injuries — failure to monitor fetal heart tones, delayed C-section, improper use of forceps or vacuum, shoulder dystocia mismanagement
• Emergency department malpractice — discharge of a patient with a stroke, heart attack, or sepsis that was missed in triage
• Hospital-acquired infections caused by violations of basic infection-control protocols
• Failure to obtain informed consent for a procedure or its known risks

Florida's Pre-Suit Investigation Requirement

Before you can file a medical malpractice lawsuit in Florida, your attorney must conduct a "reasonable investigation" under Florida Statute § 766.203 to determine that grounds exist for the claim. The investigation must include obtaining a written, signed expert affidavit from a qualified medical expert in the same or similar specialty as the defendant, stating that the standard of care was breached and that the breach caused the injury. Without that affidavit, your case cannot proceed.

Once the investigation is complete, your attorney serves a Notice of Intent to Initiate Litigation on each prospective defendant, triggering a 90-day pre-suit period during which the defendants and their carriers conduct their own investigation, exchange medical records, and may convene informal discovery (interviews, requests for documents, sworn statements). At the end of the 90 days, the defendants must accept the claim, reject it, or offer to arbitrate. The vast majority of cases reject during pre-suit, and the lawsuit follows.

Statute of Limitations and Statute of Repose

Florida medical malpractice claims must be filed within two years from the date the incident giving rise to the claim was discovered or should have been discovered with the exercise of due diligence — but in no event more than four years from the date of the incident itself. The four-year outer limit is called a "statute of repose" and applies even if the malpractice was not discoverable. There is one critical exception: in cases involving fraud, concealment, or intentional misrepresentation of fact that prevents discovery, the period is extended to seven years. For minors under age eight, the period runs at least until the child's eighth birthday.

The statute of limitations is suspended (tolled) for 90 days while the pre-suit notice period runs, plus an additional period if the parties are conducting good-faith pre-suit discovery. These tolling rules are technical and easy to miscalculate, which is one of many reasons it is dangerous to wait.

Damages in Florida Medical Malpractice Cases

Florida law allows recovery for past and future medical expenses, lost wages and lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and (in death cases) damages available to surviving family members under Florida's Wrongful Death Act. The Florida Supreme Court has struck down the previous statutory caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases (Estate of McCall v. United States, 2014; North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan, 2017), so there is no longer a hard cap on pain-and-suffering damages in most Florida med-mal cases. Punitive damages remain available in cases of intentional misconduct or gross negligence, subject to the limits in § 768.73.

Why Choose Our Firm

Medical malpractice cases are expensive to investigate and prosecute. Expert witness fees, deposition costs, and medical record charges in a single case can easily exceed $50,000 before trial, and Florida law requires those costs to be advanced by the law firm. Many Florida personal injury firms simply will not take medical malpractice cases for that reason. We accept these cases on a pure contingency basis — we advance every cost, and you owe nothing unless we recover.

If you or a loved one has been seriously harmed by a healthcare provider in Miami-Dade or Broward County, contact the Law Offices of Albert Goodwin. Call 786-522-1411 or email [email protected] to schedule a confidential, no-obligation consultation.