by Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.
If a Florida doctor, hospital, or other healthcare provider caused serious harm to you or a family member, you are probably trying to figure out two things: whether the law treats what happened as negligence, and what you can do about it.
Florida’s medical malpractice framework is dense and unforgiving of small mistakes. The procedural rules differ from those in other personal injury cases, the deadlines are short, and one missed step can end a valid claim before a judge ever assesses its merit. The core statutes sit in Chapter 766 of the Florida Statutes, with the key deadlines set in Chapter 95.
Both founding partners at Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. have been handling medical negligence cases under these statutes since 1979. We offer free case evaluations so you can get a straight answer about what the law requires and what your options actually look like.
Why Choose Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.
Founding partners Andrew Needle and Andrew Ellenberg bring more than 70 years of combined experience in Florida medical negligence and plaintiffs’ injury law. Both handle plaintiffs’ injury and death cases exclusively.
Practice Focus
Andrew Ellenberg focuses on plaintiffs’ injury and medical negligence cases, with practice concentrations that include plaintiffs’ injury and medical negligence cases across birth injury, delayed diagnosis, surgical error, anesthesia, and stroke claims. He earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law in 1988. Martindale-Hubbell rates him AV Preeminent. Florida Super Lawyers has listed him every year since 2005, and The Best Lawyers in America has listed him every year since 2009 for plaintiffs’ medical malpractice and personal injury work.
Andrew Needle is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar. His practice concentrations include complex medical malpractice litigation and trial work, including multi-million dollar verdicts in cases that have tested the outer boundaries of existing Florida legal precedent. He holds a J.D. cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law (1977) and a B.S. from Cornell University (1974). He is a charter member of the Miami chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Best Lawyers in America named him “Lawyer of the Year” for Medical Malpractice Law, Plaintiffs, in Miami for 2020 and 2025.
Verdicts and Settlements
Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients across all practice areas, including multiple eight-figure results in medical malpractice matters. Many of the healthcare cases involved birth injuries, delayed diagnosis, surgical errors, anesthesia complications, and health system negligence. Our fees are contingent. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.
What Our Clients Say
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“Prior to coming to this office, I had been rejected by another law firm who did not take the time to listen to my case. However, this Law firm was different; both lawyers actually invited us to the office and truly took the time to listen to our story. This firm has fought hard to ensure we were compensated, and their efforts have truly changed our lives forever.”
– Ketteline Fleurizard
Types of Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle in Florida
Medical negligence in Florida shows up in many different ways. The categories below make up the bulk of our practice. Each one calls for a different investigative approach, different records, and a different kind of medical opinion testimony.
- Surgical errors. Wrong-site surgery, retained instruments, never events, nerve damage, and post-operative failures. The discovery of a retained foreign body is treated as prima facie evidence of negligence under Florida law.
- Birth injuries. Oxygen deprivation, brachial plexus injuries, and delivery errors that cause cerebral palsy or other lasting harm. Birth injury claims on behalf of a minor are preserved up to the child’s 8th birthday. Florida’s NICA program applies as an exclusive remedy to certain severe neurological injuries, though stillbirth cases fall outside NICA.
- Delayed diagnosis. Missed or delayed diagnosis of cancer, cardiac events, stroke, sepsis, and pulmonary embolism. These cases must satisfy the Gooding causation standard, which requires showing that earlier diagnosis would more likely than not have changed the outcome.
- Stroke misdiagnosis. Strokes present with recognizable symptoms, and time-to-treatment drives outcomes. The AHA/ASA guidelines define eligibility windows for tPA (3 to 4.5 hours) and mechanical thrombectomy (up to 24 hours for selected patients).
- Medication errors. Wrong drug, wrong dose, or a dangerous interaction missed at the prescribing, dispensing, or administration stage. High-alert medications require additional safeguards including two-nurse independent double-checks.
- Anesthesia injuries. Airway, oxygenation, and monitoring failures can cause brain damage, cardiac arrest, or death. ASA monitoring standards define expected vigilance during general anesthesia, regional anesthesia, and monitored sedation.
- Hospital-acquired infections and sepsis. Sterile field violations, isolation precaution failures, and delayed sepsis recognition can turn a routine procedure into a life-threatening infection.
- Hospital falls. When a vulnerable patient falls because fall-risk assessment, reassessment, or supervision failed, the resulting injuries can support a malpractice claim.
- EMTALA violations and wrongful transfer. Federal law requires screening, stabilization, and confirmed acceptance before transfer of any unstabilized emergency patient.
- Wrongful death from medical negligence. When medical negligence causes death, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act governs recovery, with a significant restriction known as the “Free Kill” provision that applies only to medical negligence cases.
Florida Legal Requirements for Medical Malpractice
Florida’s medical malpractice framework is mainly outlined in Chapter 766 of the Florida Statutes, with the key deadlines set in Chapter 95. Courts enforce these rules strictly.
Statute of Limitations and Repose
Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(b) imposes several overlapping deadlines on medical malpractice claims:
- Two-year discovery rule. A claim must be filed within two years of when the injury was discovered, or reasonably should have been discovered with due diligence.
- Four-year outer cutoff. No claim may be filed more than four years from the date of the negligent act, regardless of when the injury was discovered.
- Fraud or concealment. If the provider actively hid the mistake, the outer cutoff stretches to seven years from the incident date. The two-year discovery period still runs from when the injury was, or reasonably should have been, found.
- Minor children. Neither the four-year nor the seven-year cutoff can bar an action brought on behalf of a child on or before the child’s eighth birthday.
- Wrongful death. A wrongful death claim must be filed within two years of the date of death.
Presuit Notice and the 90-Day Screening Period
Filing a lawsuit without first complying with Fla. Stat. § 766.106 is a fatal mistake. The statute requires a formal Notice of Intent to Initiate Litigation on each prospective defendant before any complaint can be filed. That notice triggers a 90-day presuit screening period. During those 90 days, the defendant investigates the claim and responds, either by admitting liability, rejecting the claim, or offering to arbitrate damages. The statute of limitations is tolled throughout this window.
Corroborating Medical Opinion
The claimant’s attorney must also obtain a written opinion from a qualified medical professional in the relevant specialty before the notice goes out, as required by Fla. Stat. § 766.104. That opinion has to confirm reasonable grounds to believe the care fell below the applicable standard. This step is not optional. Without a proper corroborating opinion, the pre-suit notice is defective, and the limitations clock can expire before the defect is fixed. Fla. Stat. § 766.104(2) also allows the claimant to petition the court clerk for an automatic 90-day extension of the statute of limitations to conduct the reasonable investigation the law requires.
Standard of Care
Florida law defines the standard of care as what a reasonably prudent health care provider would have done under the circumstances. The standard is specialty-specific. what is expected of a radiologist reading a scan is not what is expected of a primary care physician, and neither is what is expected of an emergency physician evaluating acute symptoms. That specialty framing matters when multiple providers across multiple encounters contributed to the injury.
Informed Consent
Florida’s Medical Consent Law at Fla. Stat. § 766.103 provides a separate cause of action when a patient was not informed of the substantial risks and hazards of a procedure and one of those risks later materialized. The law requires the patient to have a general understanding of the procedure, available alternatives, and substantial risks. A properly executed written consent creates a rebuttable presumption of valid consent.
Comparative Fault
Comparative fault works differently in medical malpractice than in most other Florida negligence cases. In 2023, HB 837 imposed a 51% modified comparative fault bar on ordinary negligence claims. But Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6) expressly carves out medical negligence. Medical malpractice claims still run under pure comparative negligence, which means a patient found mostly at fault can still recover a proportionally reduced amount.
What Damages Are Recoverable in Florida Medical Malpractice Cases?
Florida law lets victims of medical negligence pursue several categories of compensation. What is actually recoverable depends on the severity of the harm and whether the patient survived.
Economic Damages
These are losses you can prove with paperwork. Past, present, and future medical expenses usually make up the largest component. Long-term care, rehabilitation, and permanent disability drive those numbers up further. Lost wages and diminished earning capacity belong in this category as well, along with the costs of adaptive equipment and in-home assistance. In catastrophic cases, future economic damages often dwarf what has already been spent.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages include pain, suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, scarring and disfigurement since the time of the alleged malpractice and into the future. While there was once a limit on the amount that could be recovered for this category of damages, those caps were overruled by Florida’s highest court. Some healthcare providers claim that the caps on non-economic damages still apply to a certain category of claimants who receive health insurance through Medicaid, but this is regularly disputed by lawyers for victims of malpractice. Florida’s high court has not yet ruled on this issue.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are available under Florida law in limited circumstances. The defendant’s conduct generally has to rise to the level of intentional misconduct or gross negligence. Such awards are uncommon in medical negligence cases.
Wrongful Death Damages
When a patient dies as a result of medical negligence, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act governs who can recover and what. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.21, a surviving spouse, children under the age of 25, and certain other family members may pursue damages that include lost support, lost companionship, and mental pain and suffering.
Florida’s Wrongful Death Act contains a significant restriction that applies only to medical negligence cases. Under Florida’s wrongful death statute, children of the deceased who are not under 25, and parents of a child who is not under 25 and unmarried, cannot recover non-economic damages when the death was caused by medical malpractice. This law often referred to as Florida’s “Free Kill” law is a sad and unfortunate reality for people who have lost loved ones due to malpractice, but fall within a legal protection that exists only for healthcare providers.
Contact Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.
If you believe a Florida healthcare provider caused serious harm to you or a family member through medical negligence, the first step is a free case evaluation. Medical malpractice cases are fact-intensive and deadline-driven. Early review by experienced counsel makes a difference in what the records show and what the timeline preserves.
We offer free, no-obligation case evaluations. Our staff speaks Spanish, and we represent clients in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, and throughout Florida. Contact us to schedule your consultation. There is no fee unless we recover compensation for you.