Florida Supreme Court lifts caps on medical malpractice payouts for pain and suffering

Last Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court overturned a 2003 state law that restricted pain and suffering–related payouts in medical malpractice claims.

“We hold that the caps on personal injury noneconomic damages … violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Florida Constitution,” the 4-3 majority stated in their opinion, emphasizing the adverse impact of these “arbitrary” reductions on “plaintiffs who suffer the most drastic injuries.”

The 2003 bill instating these caps, signed into law by then-Governor Jeb Bush, was a hotly contested response to what physicians called a crisis of high insurance premiums.

The majority in last Thursday’s ruling found “no evidence of a continuing medical malpractice insurance crisis justifying the arbitrary and invidious discrimination between medical malpractice victims.”

For their part, dissenting justices argued that the majority’s ruling was an overreach.

“Under our constitutional system, it is the Legislature, not this Court, that is entitled to make laws as a matter of policy based upon the facts it finds,” the minority opinion stated. “For a majority of this Court to decide that a crisis no longer exists, if it ever existed, so it can essentially change a statute and policy it dislikes, improperly interjects the judiciary into a legislative function.”

Last week’s ruling effectively broadens a 2014 Florida Supreme Court decision that found caps unconstitutional in wrongful-death malpractice cases.

Source: Orlando Sentinel