A push to alter Florida's medical malpractice laws will have its first stop in the Senate on Monday.
Still, it looks like bill sponsor Sen. Clay Yarborough has gone along with a compromise proposed by the association that represents doctors to move the bill forward.
Yarborough's initial proposal, SB 248, was aimed at altering Florida's long-standing law that bans adult children from receiving noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits involving the death of their parents. Florida law also prohibits parents from receiving noneconomic damages in lawsuits involving the death of their adult children.
But Yarborough, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, produced an amendment that would place caps on damages that could be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits as part of his legislation.
Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature passed caps in 2003, but the state Supreme Court later invalidated those limits.
There's been a turnover of judges on the Supreme Court since those rulings, though, and industry groups believe the more conservative-leaning court would uphold the caps.
The Florida Medical Association (FMA) suggested reinstating caps in exchange for supporting the underlying wrongful death legislation.
"We're working on if there is a way of tying those two issues together, that the wrongful death bill could go, and we get some meaningful med-mal reform," FMA CEO Chris Clark told Florida Politics last week.
The proposed amendment before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday afternoon would cap noneconomic damages at $500,000 per claimant regardless of the number of health care practitioners who are liable. The limits would be $750,000 on "non-practitioners" who are liable. The cap would drop to $150,000 for health care practitioners in emergency medical cases.
The Florida Justice Association — the organization that represents trial attorneys — has come out strongly against the new proposal, saying the Legislature "should not trade one injustice for another" by putting in place limits on lawsuits in exchange for repealing the current exceptions for medical malpractice-related wrongful death cases.
"The intention of this bill was to repeal an unfair exemption in Florida law, that's it. This amendment replaces the wrongful death exemption and puts a strict dollar amount on the value of every Floridian's life," FJA President Stephen Cain said in a statement. "Caps on the value of life and the suffering these families will endure is a non-starter."
Similar bills to alter the state's wrongful death statutes have been filed in the House, but no committee has heard them to date.
Rep. Spencer Roach sponsors one of those bills, HB 77. Roach told Florida Politics Sunday night he does not support the cap on medical malpractice damages. "Any discussion of caps is a non-starter for me. I will continue to fight for a full repeal of Florida's draconian 'free kill' law,"
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