Medical Provider Negligence Lawyer Miami, FL
If you went to a doctor, a hospital, or a specialist and left in a worse condition than when you went in, something may have gone seriously wrong with your care. Maybe a diagnosis was delayed. Maybe a surgeon made an error. Maybe your treatment plan was simply wrong for your condition. These are not minor issues. A medical provider’s failure to meet the accepted standard of care can leave patients with permanent injuries, months of additional treatment, or worse.
Our Miami, FL medical provider negligence lawyer at Needle & Ellenberg, P.A. has been handling these cases across Florida for more than 46 years. We understand the medical and legal complexities involved, and we are not intimidated by the hospitals, insurance companies, and defense firms that fight these claims. Free case evaluations are available, and we work on contingency. No fees unless we win.
Why Choose Needle & Ellenberg for Medical Negligence in Miami, FL?
Proven Track Record in Medical Malpractice
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.
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.
Experience That Spans Decades and Disciplines
Andrew Needle has 46 years of practice in medical malpractice, personal injury, and wrongful death. His B.S. from Cornell University and J.D. from the University of Miami Law provided the foundation, but it is his decades in the courtroom that set him apart. He was named Lawyer of the Year for Medical Malpractice in Miami by Best Lawyers in America in 2020, a recognition based entirely on peer review.
Andrew Ellenberg brings 35 years of his own practice to the firm’s medical negligence work. He holds a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law and a B.A. from SUNY Binghamton. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Justice Association, and the Florida Justice Association.
Both attorneys handle medical provider negligence cases in Miami, FL. Between them, they’ve taken on hospital systems, individual physicians, surgical teams, and HMOs. That breadth of experience matters because medical negligence takes many forms, and each one requires different evidence, different medical knowledge, and different litigation strategies.
Contingency Fees and Free Case Reviews
All medical negligence cases are handled on a contingency fee basis. Our fees are contingent. You pay nothing up front and nothing at all unless we secure a recovery. Our staff speaks Spanish, and we provide free case evaluations for anyone who believes they were harmed by a medical provider’s negligence.
A Client’s Perspective
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“”Andrew Ellenberg represented my family during one of the most painful and frightening chapters of our lives. After my husband and our three-year-old son were involved in a horrific accident, we found ourselves overwhelmed, vulnerable, and unsure of how to move forward. From the very beginning, Andrew approached our case with the utmost professionalism, expertise, and precision; but what truly set him apart was the compassion and care he showed our family.” – Kerry Parker
Read more reviews on our Google Business Profile.
Types of Medical Provider Negligence Cases We Handle in Miami
Medical negligence takes many forms, and the consequences can vary from a prolonged recovery to permanent disability or death. Below are the types of cases we handle for patients and families in Miami.
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Surgical errors. Wrong-site surgery, retained instruments, nerve damage during a procedure, and anesthesia failures all fall under this category. These errors can cause permanent harm and frequently require additional corrective surgeries.
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Misdiagnosis. When a physician diagnoses the wrong condition, or fails to diagnose the correct one, patients can lose critical treatment windows. Cancer misdiagnosis cases, in particular, can be fatal when tumors are allowed to progress because a doctor missed the signs.
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Medication errors. Prescribing the wrong drug, the wrong dosage, or a medication that interacts dangerously with another can cause organ damage, allergic reactions, and death. These errors can occur at every level, from the prescribing physician to the dispensing pharmacist.
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Birth injuries. Injuries sustained during labor and delivery due to a provider’s failure to monitor fetal distress, improper use of forceps or vacuum extraction, or failure to perform a timely C-section can result in conditions like cerebral palsy or brachial plexus injuries.
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Emergency room errors. ERs in Miami operate under intense pressure, but that is not an excuse for failing to recognize a heart attack, sending home a patient with a spinal injury, or misreading critical lab results.
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Hospital negligence. Beyond individual doctor errors, hospitals themselves can be liable for inadequate staffing, poor infection control protocols, failures in credentialing, and systemic breakdowns in patient safety.
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Anesthesia injuries. Too much anesthesia, too little monitoring, failure to review a patient’s medical history before administering medication. All of these can lead to brain damage, cardiac arrest, or death.
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Cancer misdiagnosis. Delayed or incorrect cancer diagnoses are among the most devastating forms of medical negligence. A tumor that was treatable at Stage I may become terminal at Stage III because a provider failed to order the right test or follow up on abnormal results.
Florida Legal Requirements for Medical Provider Negligence
Florida imposes specific procedural requirements on medical negligence claims that do not apply to other types of personal injury cases.
Florida imposes strict deadlines on medical malpractice claims, and missing the deadlines can result in a potentially viable case being barred from court. Our lawyers can help you determine whether your potential case is within Florida’s statute of limitations.
Before any medical malpractice lawsuit can be filed in court, Florida law requires that the Claimant send the potential defendant healthcare providers a Notice of Intent, after which there is a 90-day presuit screening period for the exchange of information between the parties. With rare exception, the Claimant’s attorney must include with the Notice of Intent a verified affidavit(s), from a qualified expert(s), who under oath says what were the actions and/or omissions of the potential defendant healthcare provider(s) that caused injury and damage to the Claimant. You can read more about these presuit screening requirements on our blog.
Florida also applies modified comparative negligence to medical malpractice claims. If a patient is found partially responsible (for example, by failing to disclose relevant medical history), their recovery may be reduced proportionally.
What Damages Are Recoverable in a Miami Medical Provider Negligence Case?
Patients harmed by provider negligence in Miami can recover damages in three broad categories.
Economic damages can include the financial losses that were sustained and/or that reasonably will be suffered in the future, due to the malpractice. These can include lost wages, diminished earning capacity, past and future care, treatment, therapies and services, including past and future medical expenses, costs of corrective surgeries and rehabilitation, and lost earning capacity if you may not be able to return to your previous occupation. In severe cases involving brain injuries or permanent disability, the lifetime cost of care can run into the millions. Calculating these figures may require detailed projections from economists, vocational rehabilitation consultants, and life care planners who account for the patient’s age, health, and earning history.
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. A patient who underwent a botched surgical procedure and now lives with chronic pain, limited mobility, or the psychological effects of medical trauma may be entitled to significant non-economic damages. 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 may be available when the provider’s conduct was especially reckless or intentional. These are not common in medical malpractice, but they are not unheard of either. If a hospital ignored repeated warnings about a physician’s incompetence and a patient died as a result, punitive damages might be on the table. The standard for proving them is higher, requiring clear and convincing evidence, and they are subject to statutory limits in most cases.
In wrongful death cases arising from medical negligence, surviving family members may also recover for funeral expenses, lost support and services, and mental pain and suffering under the Florida Wrongful Death Act.
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
Medical negligence cases are difficult to prove, slow to resolve, and heavily contested by well-funded defense teams. At Needle & Ellenberg, our Miami medical provider negligence attorneys have built a practice around holding doctors, hospitals, and health systems accountable when their failures cause harm.
We charge no fees unless we win your case. Consultations are always free. Contact us to speak with a medical negligence attorney about your case. Our staff is bilingual, and we are available to discuss your situation at a time that works for you.