Florida's Cap for Medical Malpractice Damages
The legal field of medical malpractice is concerned with a doctor’s breach of his or her professional duty to provide the patient with carefully executed medical procedures. Caps on medical damage awards, i.e., the amount of money a wrongfully injured plaintiff is granted by the court, have the goal of cutting malpractice insurance rates for doctors, pharmaceuticals, and the medical industry.
Caps for medical malpractice awards have been enacted or considered in all states. Most states cap only pain and suffering or “punishment” damages, which are dubbed “non-economic” by law practitioners. Other “economic” damages, such as lost wages, are generally not capped.
Texas, Colorado, and California, for example, have some of the lowest caps on pain and suffering damages, at $250,000. Many states, such as Florida, occupy the middle range cap for pain and suffering at $500,000.
However, Florida medical malpractice law is more complicated than in other states. The cap on pain and suffering can be extended up to $1,500,000, depending on who was at fault. Different caps are imposed for physicians, hospitals, HMOs, hospice providers, etc. Different caps are also imposed depending on whether the injury was an emergency or a non-emergency. For emergency room cases, Florida's limit is lower at $150,000. The $500,000 cap for non-emergency may be raised in cases of catastrophic injury, where a judge finds it unjust not to raise the cap.
There is also the difficult issue of “sovereign immunity,” where public hospitals claim they cannot be sued, because of their public status. Private Florida corporations also try to claim sovereign immunity through association with the government. However, Florida law gets around this with a $100,000 limit on sovereign immunity cases, as well as the right to file a “claims bill” to get more money.
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Last Modified: 11-23-2009 11:27 AM PST
