If you are the victim of medical malpractice, you can pursue a damage claim against the care provider that hurt you. In many cases, the hospital or care facility can also be held liable for losses.
However, you have a limited time to file your case before it is time-barred and you’ll be stopped from moving forward with legal action. You don’t want to wait too long and jeopardize your claim, so you must be aware of the Florida medical malpractice statute of limitations.
Diaco Law can help you to understand the statute of limitations that applies to malpractice claims and can guide you in taking swift action to ensure that you gather the needed evidence, pursue your claim within an appropriate time period, and get the funds you need to move forward.
To find out more about how our Florida medical malpractice lawyers can help, give us a call or contact us online today.
What is the Florida Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations?
According to Florida Code Section 95.11:
“An action for medical malpractice shall be commenced within 2 years from the time the incident giving rise to the action occurred or within 2 years from the time the incident is discovered, or should have been discovered with the exercise of due diligence; however, in no event shall the action be commenced later than 4 years from the date of the incident or occurrence out of which the cause of action accrued, except that this 4-year period shall not bar an action brought on behalf of a minor on or before the child’s eighth birthday.”
While this may sound complicated, essentially the rule is that you have to make your claim within two years of the time that the medical malpractice occurred.
However, if you don’t discover it right away, then your claim can be made within two years of the time that you discover the medical negligence. However, unless the incident happened to a child, you have no more than four total years from the time of the incident to make your case.
Looking at an example helps to illustrate the rules. Say that you visit a doctor with clear symptoms of stomach cancer. Unfortunately, the doctor diagnoses a benign condition without doing the testing that a reasonably competent doctor would have done under the same circumstances. Three years later, you discover you have stomach cancer, which has now spread.
In this particular case, even though two years have passed since the incident, you didn’t discover it right away, so the clock would start running when you find out that the doctor made the misdiagnosis. While you’d theoretically have two years from the time you discover the error, the four-year rule applies. You’ll have about a year to make your claim within that four-year hard deadline.
Contact a Florida Medical Malpractice Lawyer ASAP if you Suspect you Have a Malpractice Claim
The discovery rule can make malpractice case deadlines a little more complicated, but the important thing to remember is that your time is limited for pursuing your case. You don’t want to make procedural errors and end up missing out on the chance to get justice.
Diaco Law has extensive experience with malpractice claims and, in fact, members of our legal team even have a medical degree. If you want to pursue a claim against a doctor or other healthcare provider who hurt you, you should contact our firm ASAP to get help navigating the legal system and fighting for full and fair compensation for all losses.
Give us a call at (813) 221-7978 today to schedule your free consultation with a Tampa medical malpractice lawyer to learn how we can help.