The Importance of an Expert Witness’ “Specialty” in a Florida Medical Malpractice Case

Before suing a health care provider for medical malpractice in Florida, state law requires the patient to complete a “presuit investigation” and serve advance notice on the provider. A key part of this presuit process is obtaining a “verified written medical expert opinion by an expert witness. What this means is that you need to find a doctor in the same “specialty” as the one you are suing to be your expert witness. This expert must then prepare a written report explaining how your doctor deviated from the accepted “standard of care” within the profession, and in doing so caused you harm. Without this written report, you cannot proceed with your malpractice case under Florida law.

Florida Appeals Court Dismisses Wrongful Death Claim Against Pulmonologist

Indeed, Florida courts are quite strict when it comes to enforcing these presuit requirements. Just recently, the Florida Second District Court of Appeal ordered dismissal of a medical malpractice case because the plaintiff’s proposed expert witness did not practice in the same “specialty” as the defendant, or at least the same sub-specialty.

This case, Gharma v. Williams, involved a wrongful death claim filed against multiple defendants involved with the treatment of the victim. This appeal focused on one defendant, a pulmonologist, i.e., a doctor who specializes in conditions affecting the respiratory system. The defendant was a board-certified physician in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, and critical care medicine.

The plaintiff in this case was the executor of the estate of the victim, who died while under the defendant’s care. To satisfy Florida’s expert witness requirement, the estate obtained expert testimony from a doctor who was board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology. In layperson terms, the estate expert was a cardiologist and not a pulmonologist or someone who provided critical or emergency care.

The defendant claimed this made the estate’s expert unqualified under Florida’s medical malpractice statute. His argument was that he treated the victim as a “critical care pulmonologist,” which was not one of the estate expert’s specialties. The estate countered that the law only required the expert to be in the same “specialty” as the defendant, in this case internal medicine, but not necessarily in the same “sub-specialty.”

Unfortunately for the estate, the Second District agreed with the defendant. Reversing a trial judge’s earlier ruling for the estate, the appellate court held that the term “specialty” as used in Florida’s medical malpractice statute, as far as this case was concerned, meant “pulmonology” and not “internal medicine.” As such, the estate failed to comply with the pre-suit requirements and its complaint had to be dismissed. The estate could not even re-file its lawsuit with a new expert affidavit, as the statute of limitations had already expired.

Contact a Miami Medical Malpractice Lawyer Today

Medical malpractice cases are among the most difficult personal injury claims to pursue in Florida. That is why it is of critical importance to work with a qualified Miami medical malpractice lawyer who knows how to win these cases. Contact Pita Weber Del Prado in Miami today at 305-670-2889 to schedule a free consultation.

Source:

2dca.flcourts.gov/content/download/2456864/opinion/Opinion_2024-2585.pdf