by Needle & Ellenberg, P.A.
If you were seriously harmed by a Florida healthcare provider, the filing deadline impacts the success of your injury case. File too late and your claim will be denied. You will lose the ability to seek compensation.
For medical malpractice cases in Florida, there is a two-year deadline that runs from discovery, a four-year outer cutoff from the date of the negligence, a seven-year extension when the provider actively concealed the harm, and a separate rule that protects young children from losing the right to sue before they are old enough to know something is wrong. Knowing which timeline controls your case is key.
Both founding partners at Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. have been litigating medical negligence matters under the Florida statute of limitations for medical malpractice for decades. We offer free case evaluations so you can find out where you stand before time runs out.
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 obstetrical malpractice, brachial plexus and shoulder dystocia cases, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis claims, anesthesia injuries, and wrongful death arising from medical negligence. 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, pre-suit procedure and tolling analysis, and trial work in serious personal injury and wrongful death cases. 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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“Andrew Ellenberg represented my family during one of the most painful and frightening chapters of our lives. His knowledge and skill were evident in every decision he made, and his dedication to protecting my husband and son gave us confidence during a time when everything else felt uncertain.”
– Kerry Parker
Types of Medical Malpractice Cases We Handle in Florida
The categories below make up the bulk of our medical negligence practice. Several of these claims also involve injuries that take time to surface, which is why the two-year discovery rule is essential to understand.
- Delayed diagnosis. A physician misses or delays recognition of cancer, a cardiac event, stroke, or another time-sensitive condition, and the lost time changes the outcome. The two-year discovery rule can extend the filing window here, because the harm from a missed diagnosis often takes months or years to fully emerge.
- Birth injuries. These cases involve brachial plexus injuries from shoulder dystocia, cerebral palsy tied to oxygen deprivation, and neurological damage from delayed C-sections. The 8th birthday provision in § 95.11(4)(b) matters here, because birth-related cognitive and developmental injuries often are not apparent in infancy, and the provision preserves the claim up to the child’s eighth birthday.
- Retained surgical items. Discovery often occurs months or years after the procedure, when the item is finally identified on imaging or through complications. The discovery rule is particularly important in this category because Florida law treats retained foreign bodies as prima facie evidence of negligence.
- Medication errors. Prescribing the wrong drug, dispensing the wrong dose, or missing a dangerous drug interaction can cause overdose, stroke, organ damage, or death.
- Anesthesia injuries. Dosing errors, failure to monitor vitals, and delayed response to complications during surgery can produce hypoxic brain injury, cardiac arrest, or death.
- Stroke misdiagnosis. Emergency providers miss the neurological signs of a stroke, and the window for clot-busting treatment closes.
- Hospital negligence and wrongful death. Hospital-acquired infection, sepsis, failure to rescue, falls, and hospital system failures producing serious injury or death.
How the Florida Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice Works
The Florida statute of limitations for medical malpractice is set out in Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(b). Four overlapping deadlines apply to every claim, and two separate tolling mechanisms can extend them under specific circumstances.
The Two-Year Discovery Rule
A medical malpractice claim in Florida must generally be filed within two years of when the patient knew, or with due diligence should have known, about the injury. The clock does not start on the date of the malpractice itself. It starts when the injury is reasonably discoverable. For a botched surgery with immediate, visible harm, the two dates are often the same. For a missed cancer diagnosis or a subtle medication error that produces symptoms only months later, they can be very different. The “due diligence” standard also means the clock can start when a reasonable person would have connected the dots, not only when the patient actually did.
The Four-Year Statute of Repose
Florida law imposes an outer cutoff that is independent of discovery. No medical malpractice action may be commenced more than four years after the date of the negligent act, even if the patient never discovered the injury during that window. This is known as a statute of repose. It operates as a hard stop, and courts enforce it strictly.
The Seven-Year Fraud and Concealment Extension
If fraud, concealment, or intentional misrepresentation by the provider prevented the patient from discovering the injury, the outer cutoff extends from four years to seven years. The patient still has two years from actual or reasonable discovery within that window. Proving concealment is fact-intensive work. It generally requires evidence that the provider knew of the error and actively hid it through altered records, false statements, or similar conduct.
The Minor’s Eighth Birthday Rule
Florida law provides a narrow but important protection for young children. Neither the four-year repose period nor the seven-year fraud extension can bar an action brought on behalf of a minor on or before the child’s eighth birthday. Birth injury claims frequently fall within this provision, because cerebral palsy, cognitive impairments, and other developmental harms often are not apparent in infancy and only emerge as the child grows. The protection ends at the 8th birthday, so birth injury claims on behalf of a minor generally must be filed by then.
Wrongful Death Cases
When medical negligence causes a patient’s death, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act imposes its own deadline. A wrongful death claim must be filed within two years of the date of death, which is a separate trigger from the underlying malpractice incident.
Two Tolling Mechanisms
Two separate statutes can pause or extend the deadline once an investigation begins.
First, under Fla. Stat. § 766.104(2), the claimant can petition the court clerk for an automatic 90-day extension of the statute of limitations to conduct the reasonable investigation the law requires before a complaint can be filed.
Second, when the attorney serves the Notice of Intent to Initiate Litigation under Fla. Stat. § 766.106, the statute of limitations is tolled for the entire 90-day presuit screening period.
These tolling mechanisms can apply in the same case, but the way they interact is technical and has been the subject of appellate decisions. The effective deadline in any specific case requires careful calculation.
What Damages Are Recoverable in Florida Medical Malpractice Cases?
The damages available in a Florida medical malpractice claim depend on the severity of the harm, whether the patient survived, and which family members are involved. Meeting the filing deadlines above is what preserves the right to recover any of them.
Economic Damages
Economic losses are the quantifiable financial impact of negligence. Past and future medical expenses are usually the largest line item in serious cases, especially when the injury requires long-term care or rehabilitation. Lost wages and diminished future earning capacity also fall here, along with the cost of in-home assistance, adaptive equipment, and home modifications.
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 and Wrongful Death Damages
Punitive damages are available only where the defendant’s conduct rose to intentional misconduct or gross negligence, and they are uncommon in medical negligence cases. Wrongful death damages under Fla. Stat. § 768.21 include lost support and lost companionship for surviving spouses and children under the age of 25.
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 where the filing deadline may be approaching, 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.