A major victory for Maya’s family, their lawyers, and patients everywhere. I cannot overstate how impressive this work is under difficult circumstances.

A Florida jury tacked on $50 million in punitive damages to a roughly $211 million award to the family of Maya Kowalski, the child at the center of the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya,” against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital for mistreating Maya to the point that her mother took her own life. Read […]

The Impact Rule

In many states, including Florida, a physical impact is required for a plaintiff to recover mental and emotional damages for most torts. There are exceptions for the most egregious misconduct – when some people without any physical impact can recover mental and emotional damages. I have litigated that question successfully on appeal. You can read […]

11th Circ. Affirms $12M Award Over Deadly Fla. Keys Crash

In Florida, there is a presumption that the driver of a vehicle that rear-ends another is at fault. That presumption may be overcome by evidence of a sudden stop, sudden entry into traffic or cutting off traffic. Given that, you might rightly wonder why the carrier of the sand truck in this recent case in […]

Med Mal Presuit Rules Can Be A Trap

Many states, like Florida, have presuit rules for medical malpractice cases, passed at the urging of lobbies that represent insurance companies and hospital systems. These rules differ from state to state but generally make filing suit more difficult by setting up a series of procedures your lawyer has to follow. Unsurprisingly, almost every case involves […]

Discovery of Hospital Incident Reporting and Peer Review Privilege

I have had cases like the one below with both anonymous and signed reports removed from medical charts. In one case, a doctor met me in a restaurant across the street from the hospital and delivered to me his copy of a report that had been removed from the patient’s chart. I have also been […]

Fla. Supreme Court Allows Early Dismissal of Medical Malpractice Cases

After forty years, Florida courts and the legislature still can’t decide exactly what the rules for medical malpractice should be. Your lawyer needs to appreciate all the potential pitfalls. “We acknowledged that ‘the Medical Malpractice Act changed the law such that an interlocutory remedy for parties facing claims that fail to satisfy its pre-suit requirements […]

The Endless Courthouse Drama When Hospitals Are Determined To Hide Their Policies And Procedures

I posted recently about frivolous defenses and appeals raised by defendants, often because their insurance carriers have the resources to waste time and the incentive to hold on to the money that will eventually be paid to satisfy the claim. When we hear about frivolous claims, it is usually from insurance interests complaining that non-meritorious […]

You Have 2 Years To Sue Dead People, Fla. High Court Rules

The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that insurance liability lawsuits must be filed within two years of a would-be defendant’s death, upholding a decision dismissing a suit against Lewis Bear Co. and the estate of a now-deceased employee who injured two women with a company truck. In a 5-1 decision, the state high court said […]

Does Sovereign Immunity Apply to Your Claim?

In the United States, agencies (state, federal, local, municipal). reserve immunity for themselves but consent to being held accountable by way of statute. Tackling any government’s agency right to sovereign immunity is, like any effort to enforce accountability, a righteous cause. Always. The Georgia Department of Transportation cannot fully escape a lawsuit alleging that it […]