- Limits on malpractice awards in Florida were an attempt to lower premiums for doctors.Hospital image by Raulmah?3n from Fotolia.com
Doctors purchase malpractice insurance to protect them from financial losses resulting from a malpractice lawsuit and because most states require them to be covered. Medical malpractice refers to a physician not providing at least the minimum quality of care for a patient thus causing the patient some type of harm. Because victims could receive large awards from these claims, malpractice insurance premiums are high. To combat premiums, Florida has limited the damages a patient could receive in a malpractice lawsuit and placed limits on attorney fees in these cases. - Under Florida law, doctors are required to have at least $100,000 in malpractice insurance and at least $250,000 if they are going to be working in a hospital. They do have options. For example, they can establish a trust account instead. If they choose not to set aside funds to cover malpractice claims or to purchase malpractice insurance, the law does require them to post a sign in their office alerting patients that they do not carry insurance.
- In Florida malpractice cases, the maximum award a victim can receive is $500,000 in non-economic damages or $1 million if they end up in a persistent vegetative state or dead as a result of the doctor's negligence. Non-economic damages include awards for pain and suffering, impairment or disfigurement, and similar claims. If punitive damages are awarded, they are capped at three times the economic or compensatory damages suffered by the victim. Punitive damages, which are awarded to punish the doctor for his wrongdoing, are capped at $500,000 unless the victim can prove the doctor intended to cause the patient harm.
- Because of the large settlements involved in malpractice cases, attorneys handling the cases could walk away with a hefty check for their efforts. To ensure that patients received most of the award for their injury, the Legislature also limited the attorney fees in these cases. In Florida, the malpractice attorney's fees can equal 30 percent of awards of up to $250,000, plus 10 percent of the award above that amount.
- Under the revised Florida malpractice laws, judges also have the option of assigning joint liability to both the victim and the doctor. If both parties were guilty of contributory negligence, then they are both held responsible for the damages. The judge determines the percentage of negligence for each party and reduces the victim's award appropriately. For example, if the victim was 10 percent at fault and was initially awarded $200,000 in damages then the award would be reduced to $180,000.
- Although the new law limited malpractice awards was intended to reduce malpractice insurance premiums for doctors in Florida, the results have not been significant. Even though the losses felt by malpractice insurers dropped by more than 50 percent between 2003 ($700 million in losses) and 2006 ($300 million in losses), the premiums went down by only 8 percent. Malpractice claims also dropped by 25 percent between 2004 and 2007 but doctors in Florida did not see a steep decline in their premiums, which can be as high as $100,000 per year in some parts of the state for specialties, such as obstetrics, according to an article in the Insurance Journal.
previous post