Broward County runs on a mix of large public hospital systems, like Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare, alongside private centers such as Holy Cross Health and Cleveland Clinic Weston. That range gives residents plenty of options for care, and most of the time, that care meets the standard patients are owed. When it doesn’t, the fallout can include a missed cancer diagnosis, a surgical injury, or a birth complication that never should have happened.
Our attorneys work with patients and families across Broward County after a doctor, nurse, or hospital system has caused them serious harm. Talking with us costs nothing, and within one conversation we can usually tell you whether Florida law would treat what happened to you as malpractice.
Call (800) 863-5312 or submit an online form to get started.
When Hospitals Protect Themselves Ahead of Their Patients
The moment a serious complication occurs, hospital risk-management teams open an internal review, and that review is built to limit the institution’s exposure. It isn’t designed to make the patient whole. Insurance adjusters aren’t far behind, often approaching an injured patient with warmth while compiling a file behind the scenes meant to keep any eventual payout small.
Jack Zinda‘s lifetime membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum is reserved for attorneys who’ve secured seven- and eight-figure results for clients with life-changing injuries. Several of our attorneys carry National Trial Lawyers honors of their own, and the Better Business Bureau has awarded the firm an A+ rating tied to client communication and outcomes.
We’ve resolved more than 6,500 injury cases firm-wide and recovered upward of $400 million for clients. Medical malpractice cases sit among the most demanding work our attorneys take on, and that trial record is a big part of why hospitals and their insurers respond seriously when we get involved.
AWARDED TO JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA BY THE NATIONAL TRIAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (2016-2020) AWARDED TO JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA (2009, 2011-2012, 2014-2021), & NEIL SOLOMON (2020-2021) AWARDED TO JACK ZINDA (2016-2020) LIFETIME MEMBERS JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDAOur Awards
Malpractice Claims Aren’t Won With a Police Report
Most personal injury claims can be built around an accident report and some photos. Malpractice cases work differently. You need a licensed medical expert who’s willing to dig into the chart, pinpoint where the standard of care slipped, and put that opinion on record under oath. Our firm brings in specialists matched to the medical issue at hand, plus life-care planners and economic experts who translate a patient’s future needs into an actual number.
That kind of casework is neither quick nor cheap, and it’s why plenty of firms pass on malpractice cases altogether. Broward County families who’ve been turned down elsewhere are often the ones who end up in our office.
Client Testimonials
“With Zinda Law Group, I was able to get my life back together.” – Jacob
“Zinda was very prepared and very compassionate.” – Marlon
Compensation Available to Malpractice Victims in Broward County
Florida recognizes several categories of compensation for a patient hurt by malpractice, and for a family that loses someone to it. Which categories apply, and the size of each one, depends on the specifics of what happened to you.
Economic Losses
This covers everything you can put a receipt to: hospital charges, follow-up surgeries needed to correct the original harm, medication, physical therapy, home health care, and the income you lost while you couldn’t work. If your ability to earn a living going forward has been reduced, that gap between your old earning potential and your new one gets factored in too.
Non-Economic Losses and What Florida’s Statute Says
Non-economic damages cover the harm that doesn’t come with an invoice, things like pain, emotional suffering, and the loss of parts of life you used to enjoy. Section 766.118 of the Florida Statutes still spells out specific dollar caps on these damages, though the Florida Supreme Court has since ruled the core version of those caps unconstitutional, meaning courts largely set them aside.
The Numbers Still Written Into the Statute
As written, section 766.118 limits a practitioner’s liability for non-economic damages to $500,000 per claimant. A nonpractitioner defendant, think a hospital corporation or similar entity, faces a $750,000 per-claimant limit instead. Those figures climb for what the statute labels a “catastrophic injury,” a category that covers things like major spinal cord damage, limb amputation, serious brain injury, extensive burns, blindness, and loss of reproductive organs. Death or a permanent vegetative state pushes a practitioner’s cap up to $1 million, and that same $1 million ceiling can apply even without death if a court finds it would otherwise be unjust to hold the injury to the lower limit. Nonpractitioner defendants see their cap rise to $1.5 million under those same circumstances.
Emergency care gets its own separate scale. A practitioner treating a patient in an emergency setting faces a $150,000 per-claimant cap and a $300,000 total cap across all claimants, while a nonpractitioner providing that same emergency care faces a considerably higher $750,000 per-claimant and $1.5 million aggregate limit. There’s also a distinct, lower cap for negligence involving a Medicaid patient: $300,000 per claimant, or as little as $200,000 for an individual practitioner, unless bad faith or willful disregard for patient safety can be shown.
Why These Caps Rarely Apply in Practice
Two Florida Supreme Court decisions changed how this statute functions in practice. Estate of McCall v. United States struck down the cap as applied to wrongful death claims, and North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan later extended that ruling to personal injury cases generally. The court’s reasoning in both cases: the insurance crisis that originally justified the caps had passed, and continuing to enforce them meant the patients who suffered the most were compensated the least. Because of those rulings, a jury hearing a standard malpractice case today can award whatever the evidence supports for pain, suffering, and related harm, unconstrained by the dollar figures written into subsections (2) and (3).
Wrongful Death Compensation
Losing a family member to malpractice opens the door to a separate set of damages: funeral and burial costs, the income and support the person would have contributed, and compensation for the loss of their guidance and companionship, all recognized under Florida’s wrongful death statute.
Why Families Turn to Zinda Law Group
Contingency Fees Only
You owe us nothing upfront, and nothing at all unless we recover money on your behalf.
Ready Access to Medical Experts
Since Florida requires a corroborating expert opinion before a malpractice case can be filed, we lean on established relationships with specialists who can turn around a records review quickly.
The Firepower to Match a Hospital System
Large hospital networks and their insurers staff entire teams whose only job is defending malpractice claims. We counter with our own bench of investigators, expert witnesses, and trial lawyers built to go toe-to-toe with that.
Cases Built for Trial From Day One
Insurance companies pay closer to fair value when they believe a firm is fully prepared to try the case. We build every file that way, regardless of whether it ends up in front of a jury.
Answers That Make Sense
Between the medical terminology and the legal process, this can get confusing fast. We break it down in plain language and keep you posted as things develop.
CASE RESULTS
What Happens After You Hire Us
Step 1: A Free Case Review
We listen to your story, look over whatever documentation you already have, and give you a candid assessment of where things stand.
Step 2: Full Medical Record Collection
We go after the entire chart, well beyond a summary, meaning nursing notes, physician orders, imaging studies, and lab work included.
Step 3: Independent Expert Evaluation
A specialist with relevant experience reviews the case to determine whether your care fell short of what a competent provider would have done.
Step 4: Locating the Breakdown
Once that deviation is confirmed, we trace it back to the specific point where things went wrong and who is accountable for it.
Step 5: Full Damages Assessment
We tally every category of loss, including costs that won’t surface for years, so the case is valued correctly from the outset.
Step 6: Demand and Negotiation
We put together a thorough, expert-backed demand and hold firm when an offer is built on delay or denial and ignores the facts on record.
Step 7: Trial, if It Comes to That
When an insurer refuses to offer a fair number, our trial attorneys take the matter in front of a jury.
Types of Medical Malpractice Cases We Take On
Our attorneys handle claims across the full spectrum of medical negligence, including:
- Birth injuries
- Surgical errors
- Misdiagnosis
- Delayed diagnosis
- Medication errors
- Emergency room negligence
- Anesthesia errors
- Hospital negligence
- Nursing negligence
- Failure to monitor patients
- Failure to treat
- Cancer misdiagnosis
- Radiology errors
- Pharmacy errors
- Nursing home medical negligence
The Patterns Behind Most Malpractice Claims
A handful of failures show up over and over in the cases our attorneys investigate:
- A symptom that clearly warranted testing gets brushed aside
- Key information gets lost during a shift change or handoff between providers
- A surgical mistake happens, such as the wrong site, the wrong procedure, or a retained instrument
- A medication gets given at the wrong dose, at the wrong time, alongside something it shouldn’t be combined with, or as an entirely different drug
- A test the patient’s symptoms plainly called for never gets ordered
- Imaging or lab work gets misinterpreted
- A complication during labor and delivery isn’t addressed quickly enough
- Vital signs or post-surgical status go unchecked for too long
- Records are kept so sparsely that they obscure what care was delivered
- A patient falls through the cracks after treatment or discharge, without the follow-up they should have received
Injuries in Broward County Tied to Medical Negligence
Some of the most devastating injuries our firm handles come from medical negligence. These include brain damage, stroke, paralysis, amputation, organ damage, infection and sepsis, birth injuries, permanent disability, and wrongful death.
Steps to Take if You Believe You’ve Been a Victim of Malpractice
Florida law gives you a path toward recovery, but what you do in the early days after realizing something went wrong can shape how strong that path is.
- Get evaluated by a different provider or facility as soon as you can.
- Hold on to every piece of documentation tied to your treatment, including bills, imaging, and prescriptions.
- Write down the details of what happened while they’re still fresh in your memory.
- Avoid going into detail with hospital staff or an insurance adjuster before you’ve spoken with an attorney.
- Contact a malpractice attorney without delay, since Florida’s pre-suit process eats into the time you have to file.
From there, a negligence claim gets filed against the provider or facility responsible, and it either resolves through negotiation or heads to trial if the offer doesn’t reflect what you’ve been through.
Florida’s Filing Deadlines for Malpractice Claims
Florida generally gives you two years to bring a malpractice claim, and that clock starts either on the date the malpractice happened or on the date you discovered the injury, or reasonably should have. A four-year statute of repose caps most claims regardless of when the injury was discovered, with an exception if the provider committed fraud or actively concealed what happened. Children younger than eight get different treatment: their two-year window doesn’t begin until they turn eight. A wrongful death claim tied to malpractice carries its own separate two-year deadline. That clock is counted from the date of death itself.
None of that starts running until a required pre-suit process wraps up first. Florida requires a formal notice of intent to each potential defendant, followed by a 90-day investigation period, and a qualified medical expert has to sign off corroborating the claim before it moves forward. That window eats into your filing deadline, so delaying contact with an attorney shrinks the time you have left to act. Malpractice lawsuits arising in Broward County are filed within Florida’s Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, headquartered at the Broward County Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale.
What You Have to Prove to Win a Malpractice Case
A successful claim in Florida requires establishing four separate elements:
Duty of Care
Your provider was obligated to treat you according to the standard a similarly trained professional would follow in the same field. Establishing that standard usually calls for testimony from another physician practicing in the same specialty.
Breach of That Duty
Your provider’s conduct didn’t meet that standard. That can look like a procedural error, a failure to walk you through the risks of a treatment clearly enough for your consent to count as informed, or another departure from what accepted care requires.
A Compensable Injury
You have to show actual harm resulting from the breach. Sometimes that’s economic, like medical bills and lost income, and sometimes it’s non-economic, like ongoing pain.
Causation
The breach itself has to be the direct cause of the injury, separate from your pre-existing condition or a known, accepted risk of the treatment itself. Negligence on its own isn’t enough if it can’t be tied directly to the harm you experienced.
How Florida’s Comparative Negligence Rule Applies to Malpractice
In 2023, Florida adopted a 51% bar for most negligence cases, meaning a plaintiff found more than half at fault for their own injury recovers nothing. Medical malpractice claims were left out of that overhaul and continue to run under Florida’s earlier pure comparative negligence rule. Practically, that means a jury could pin some percentage of fault on you, say, for skipping a follow-up visit or not disclosing everything in your medical background, and you’d still walk away with a reduced recovery. The claim doesn’t collapse entirely the way it would under the 51% bar.
Speak With a Broward County Medical Malpractice Lawyer Today
Someone else’s mistake shouldn’t become your financial burden. Our attorneys will walk through what happened, give you a direct read on whether it looks like malpractice, and if it does, pursue everything the law entitles you to.
Call (800) 863-5312 for a free, confidential consultation, or submit an online form and we’ll be in touch.
Our No Win, No Fee Guarantee means exactly what it says: you don’t pay us a thing unless we get you a result. Meetings with attorneys are by appointment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How hard is it to sue for medical malpractice in Florida?
Harder than most personal injury claims. You have to line up a qualified medical expert before you can even file, and you have to get through Florida’s mandatory 90-day pre-suit investigation on top of that. The claims that get through tend to settle before ever going to trial, and the ones that do reach a jury are difficult for plaintiffs to win outright. That difficulty is an argument for building the case properly from day one. It shouldn’t discourage you from pursuing it.
What are the odds of winning a medical malpractice suit?
It depends heavily on how you slice the numbers. Most claims resolve through settlement long before a jury gets involved, and for the smaller share that do go to trial, research on verdicts nationally puts plaintiff win rates somewhere around 20 to 30 percent. Cases with thin evidence pull that average down; cases with strong expert support and clearly documented harm do considerably better than the average suggests.
How long does it take to resolve a medical malpractice case in Florida?
There’s no fixed timeline, but a few things stretch it out compared to other injury claims. The 90-day pre-suit investigation has to run before a lawsuit is even filed, and once litigation starts, malpractice cases often take a year or more to resolve because of how much expert testimony and medical record review is involved. Straightforward cases with clear liability can settle faster; complex cases involving permanent injuries or disputed causation can take considerably longer, especially if the case ends up going to trial.
Who is the best medical malpractice lawyer in Florida?
Trial experience in malpractice cases specifically, established relationships with credible medical experts, and enough financial backing to fund a case for however long it takes are the things to look for. Jack Zinda’s lifetime membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, the firm’s $400 million-plus in total recoveries, and more than 6,500 resolved injury cases give you a concrete benchmark to measure any attorney you’re considering against.
What is the hardest element to prove in a medical malpractice case?
Usually causation. Establishing that a provider made an error tends to be the more straightforward part. Tying that specific error directly to your specific injury, as opposed to your underlying medical condition or a risk you accepted going into treatment, is where expert testimony carries most of the weight.
Which type of doctor gets sued the most?
Surgeons and OB-GYNs consistently show up at the top of national survey data on malpractice claim frequency. Their work tends to involve high-stakes procedures with narrow margins for error, which drives the numbers up. Claims against other kinds of providers are every bit as serious; the frequency gap mostly reflects how much procedural risk is built into surgical and obstetric work.
What medical specialty is least likely to get sued?
Psychiatrists and dermatologists tend to land at the bottom of national survey data on malpractice claims, well below the rates seen in surgical and obstetric specialties. Their work generally involves less invasive, lower-risk procedures, which translates into fewer claims. That doesn’t mean malpractice can’t happen in those fields, only that it happens less often relative to higher-risk specialties.
Which doctor pays the highest malpractice insurance?
Neurosurgeons are typically cited as paying the highest malpractice insurance premiums of any specialty, with OB-GYNs and other surgical specialists close behind. Insurers price these premiums around claim frequency and severity, and neurosurgery combines both: high-stakes procedures where an error can cause catastrophic, expensive-to-compensate injuries.
What is the number one reason doctors get sued?
Missed or delayed diagnosis is consistently the leading cause cited in national surveys of malpractice claims, ahead of surgical complications, poor outcomes, and failure to treat. A diagnosis that comes too late can let a treatable condition progress into something far more serious, which is often exactly what turns a bad outcome into a viable malpractice claim.
What is the 51% rule in Florida?
It’s the rule Florida adopted in 2023 that blocks recovery entirely in most negligence cases once a jury decides the injured person is more than half responsible for their own harm. Medical malpractice claims don’t fall under that rule. They still follow the state’s older pure comparative negligence standard, so a patient found partly at fault can still collect a reduced award. The case doesn’t get thrown out the way it would under the 51% bar.
What happens when you file a complaint against a doctor in Florida?
That complaint goes to the Florida Department of Health or the Board of Medicine and triggers an administrative review of the provider’s license. It can lead to professional discipline, but it won’t put money in your pocket. Compensation for your injuries has to come through a separate civil lawsuit, and nothing stops you from pursuing both paths simultaneously.
What are the consequences of medical malpractice?
Patients face consequences ranging from added medical treatment and missed income to permanent disability or death, which is what the compensation categories described above are meant to address. Providers face a different set of consequences: a report to the National Practitioner Data Bank, rising malpractice insurance costs, possible loss of hospital privileges, and licensing discipline through the state, on top of anything they owe through a lawsuit or settlement.
What are the four D’s for a malpractice suit to be successful?
They’re another label for the same four elements outlined above: duty, dereliction (the breach of that duty), direct cause (causation), and damages. You’ll see different firms use “D’s” or “elements” depending on their style, but the legal test underneath stays the same.
What are the four C’s of malpractice?
Most commonly, this refers to compassion, communication, competence, and charting, a framework providers use to reduce their own risk of being sued. It’s a patient-safety concept, distinct from what a patient has to prove in court. If you’re building a claim, the four elements described above are what carry legal weight.
Who can sue for medical negligence in Florida?
The patient who was harmed can bring the claim directly, and a parent or legal guardian can bring one on behalf of an injured minor or an incapacitated adult. When malpractice results in death, it’s the personal representative of the deceased’s estate who files a wrongful death claim, acting on behalf of the estate and the statutory survivors.
Who are survivors of medical malpractice in Florida?
Under Florida’s Wrongful Death Act, survivors typically include the deceased patient’s spouse, children, and parents, along with other blood relatives or adoptive siblings who depended on the patient for support or services. A deceased patient’s minor children automatically count as survivors, regardless of whether they were financially dependent.
Is medical malpractice rare?
Medical errors happen more frequently than most people would guess, but formal lawsuits over them are relatively uncommon by comparison. Florida’s pre-suit requirements weed out a large portion of potential claims before they ever get near a courtroom, which is exactly why getting an early evaluation makes more sense than assuming nothing can be done.
What’s the average payout for medical negligence?
There isn’t one number that fits every case, since payouts hinge on the severity of the injury, how strong the evidence is, and how the case ultimately gets resolved. National data on paid claims tends to cluster in the low-to-mid six figures on average, though catastrophic injuries and wrongful death cases frequently settle for considerably more. Your case’s actual value comes down to your specific medical costs, lost income, and what you’ve endured.
