Miami medical malpractice lawyer.

Florida § 766.102 defines medical malpractice as a breach of the prevailing professional standard of care by a healthcare provider that causes injury. The standard is what a reasonably prudent provider in the same specialty would have done. A bad outcome alone is not malpractice. There must be a breach.

Two years from the date of incident or from when you reasonably should have discovered the harm. The absolute statute of repose is four years. Birth-injury claims involving a child extend to the child’s eighth birthday. Sovereign-immunity claims against Jackson and other county providers require notice within three years under § 768.28(6).

Section 766.203 requires that, before any malpractice case can be filed, a board-certified physician in the relevant specialty must sign a sworn affidavit stating there are reasonable grounds to believe the standard of care was breached. We obtain the affidavit before we file. Cases dismissed for lack of an affidavit cannot be re-filed if the statute of limitations has expired.

Nothing upfront. We work on contingency: no fee unless we recover for you. Our fee is a percentage of any recovery, capped by Florida Bar Rule 4-1.5(f)(4)(B), which sets the maximum percentage by stage of the case. Your exact rate is fixed in writing before we start. Case costs (expert witnesses, depositions, life-care planners, trial graphics, typically $75,000 to $250,000 on a complex case) are advanced by the firm and reimbursed only out of recovery. If we don’t recover, you owe us zero.

Caps may apply only in voluntary arbitration ($250,000 per claimant under § 766.207, and only if the defendant agrees to arbitrate). No general non-economic cap is currently enforceable in Florida medical malpractice. Economic damages (lifetime medical, lost wages, future care) are uncapped.

After § 766.106 notice is served, both sides have 90 days to investigate informally. The defendants must respond with one of three positions: rejection, offer to admit liability and arbitrate damages, or offer to settle. Most cases that resolve quickly resolve in this window. The clock on the statute of limitations is paused during presuit.

Generally no. Jackson Health is a Miami-Dade County public hospital, and Florida § 768.28 caps recovery at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident regardless of how catastrophic the harm. Because the case economics rarely justify the expert costs we front, our firm focuses on private hospitals and physician groups, where the caps do not apply. If your care involved both public and private providers, we can still review the private side. We will tell you on the first call whether pursuing a public-hospital case makes sense for your specific facts.

VA medical centers are governed by the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), not Florida’s sovereign-immunity statute. Cases follow a different procedure and timeline. We accept these cases when the facts support them; the FTCA process is more demanding but the damages framework is different.

Probably not. Most cases settle during discovery or mediation, and that is the goal: maximize value, then resolve. What drives settlement value up is the firm’s willingness to take cases to verdict, paired with the § 766.203 pre-acceptance physician screening. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome in your case.

None. We obtain records under HIPAA, even if you have nothing in hand. If you do have records, photographs, voicemails, or insurance correspondence, bring them, but don’t delay calling because you’re still gathering paperwork. Records degrade and witnesses rotate out.

No. Medicine has known complications and bad outcomes happen even when the standard of care is met perfectly. That is why the four elements exist: duty, breach, causation, damages. Without breach, there is no case, regardless of how devastating the outcome.

Sí. Our intake team is fully bilingual; trial work can be conducted in either language with a court interpreter when needed. Most of our Miami-Dade clients prefer Spanish for the first call.