Port St. Lucie medical malpractice lawyer.

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 under Florida § 95.11(4)(b). Treasure Coast cases typically file in the 19th Judicial Circuit (St. Lucie, Martin, Okeechobee) or the 19th’s Indian River seat. The presuit § 766.106 process tolls the statute of limitations during the 90-day investigation.

Both can be defendants depending on the facts. Most attending physicians at Cleveland Clinic Martin Health, HCA Florida, and other Treasure Coast hospitals are independent contractors, not hospital employees. That means hospital liability often turns on apparent-agency analysis (whether a reasonable patient believed the doctor was a hospital employee). Hospital nursing, triage, monitoring, escalation, and protocol failures are typically direct hospital liability.

Yes. ASCs are AHCA-licensed but operate differently from hospitals: less night staffing, no inpatient ICU, faster discharge, and post-op recovery at home. The most common ASC fact patterns are anesthesia errors, retained foreign objects, and post-op complications that should have been caught before discharge. We review surgery center cases across all four Treasure Coast counties.

Common on the Treasure Coast, especially for tertiary referrals. We trace the timeline across every facility, identify where the breach and damages occurred, and file in the appropriate venue. A St. Lucie ER miss followed by a Palm Beach hospital admission can result in venue in either county; we make the strategic call on which jurisdiction is best for your case.

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.

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.

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.

Sí. Our intake team is fully bilingual; trial work can be conducted in either language with a court interpreter when needed.