Medical Malpractice Attorney West Palm Beach

Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider fails to meet the accepted standard of care and that failure causes injury or death. The standard of care is what a reasonably careful medical professional with similar training would have done in the same situation. It is the centerpiece of every medical malpractice claim.

A bad outcome by itself is not malpractice. Medicine carries risk, and a treatment can fail even when everything was done correctly. Malpractice is the difference between an unavoidable complication and an avoidable one: the provider did something a competent peer would not have done, or failed to do something a competent peer would have done, and the patient suffered as a result.

Any licensed provider can commit malpractice, including doctors, surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, pharmacists, and the hospitals and clinics that employ them. The most common medical mistakes our West Palm Beach medical malpractice attorneys see include:

• Failure to diagnose or delayed diagnosis of a serious condition in time to treat it
• Misdiagnosis that leads to incorrect treatment or no treatment
• Surgical errors, from wrong-site surgery to instruments left inside the patient
• Birth injuries to mother or baby during labor and delivery
• Anesthesia errors, including dosing mistakes and failure to monitor
• Medication mistakes, such as the wrong medication, the wrong dose, or a missed allergy
• Lack of informed consent, when a patient is not told the material risks of a procedure before agreeing to it

Florida Chapter 766 governs medical malpractice claims, and it imposes procedural requirements found in no other kind of personal injury case. Those are covered below.

Gordon & Partners also handles these medical malpractice cases for clients in West Palm Beach:

• Anesthesia malpractice in West Palm Beach
• Cerebral palsy in West Palm Beach
• Erb’s palsy in West Palm Beach
• Military medical malpractice in West Palm Beach
• Nursing malpractice in West Palm Beach
• OBGYN malpractice in West Palm Beach
• Ophthalmologist malpractice in West Palm Beach
• Orthopedic malpractice in West Palm Beach
• Pediatric malpractice in West Palm Beach
• Surgical mistakes in West Palm Beach

To win a medical malpractice claim in Florida, you must prove four elements:

1. Duty of care. A provider-patient relationship existed, so the healthcare provider owed you a professional duty.
2. Breach of the standard of care. The provider failed to act as a similarly trained, reasonably careful professional would have under similar circumstances.
3. Causation. The breach directly caused the patient’s injury. It is not enough that the provider made a mistake; the mistake has to be the reason you were harmed.
4. Damages. You suffered measurable harm, whether physical, financial, or both.

Every one of these elements requires expert testimony from a qualified medical expert in the same specialty as the provider. Florida law will not let a case proceed without it. Gordon & Partners retains the experts, funds their review, and builds the record around the standard of care from the first day of the case.

Failure to diagnose is one of the most frequently litigated forms of medical malpractice, and one of the most damaging. When a doctor misses or delays a diagnosis of cancer, heart attack, stroke, appendicitis, sepsis, or a spinal infection, the condition keeps advancing while the patient believes they are fine. Treatment options narrow, and by the time the diagnosis is finally made, an outcome that was once curable may no longer be. Our Florida medical malpractice attorneys represent patients and families from Palm Beach County to the Gulf Coast.

Our West Palm Beach medical negligence lawyers also handle:

• Misdiagnosis. A patient is told they have one condition when they have another, and receives treatment that does nothing for the real problem, or makes it worse.
• Surgical errors. Operating on the wrong site, damaging nerves or organs, leaving sponges or instruments behind, causing preventable infections, or failing to give proper post-operative instructions. Our surgical errors attorney team handles these cases.
• Birth injuries. Failing to respond to fetal distress, delaying a necessary C-section, or misusing forceps or vacuum extractors, resulting in cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, or brain damage from oxygen deprivation. See our birth injury lawyers and OBGYN malpractice lawyer pages.
• Anesthesia errors. Too much or too little anesthesia, intubation mistakes, and failure to monitor vital signs. Our anesthesia error attorney team has handled cases with catastrophic results.
• Nursing malpractice. Medication errors, failure to monitor, failure to escalate a deteriorating patient, and patient falls. Our nursing malpractice lawyer team handles these claims.
• Emergency room negligence, where rushed evaluations lead to missed diagnoses and premature discharge.
• Pediatric medical malpractice, including missed childhood diagnoses and dosing errors.

Patients in West Palm Beach receive care at major Palm Beach County facilities such as St. Mary’s Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center, and at physician offices and outpatient centers across the county. Naming a facility says nothing about its record; malpractice can happen anywhere care is delivered. If you want to research a provider before or after treatment, the Florida Department of Health profile search and the Florida Board of Medicine publish licensing and disciplinary information.

Florida does not let you simply file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Chapter 766 of the Florida Statutes requires a mandatory presuit process, and a case that skips it can be dismissed. The steps:

1. Presuit investigation. Under Florida Statute 766.203, your attorney must conduct an investigation to determine there are reasonable grounds to believe the provider was negligent and that the negligence caused injury. That starts with obtaining and reviewing your complete medical records.
2. Verified medical expert opinion. The investigation must be supported by a written, sworn opinion from a qualified medical expert confirming that malpractice appears to have occurred.
3. Notice of Intent to Initiate Litigation. Under Florida Statute 766.106, you must serve a Notice of Intent on every prospective defendant by certified mail, return receipt requested, along with the expert’s opinion.
4. 90-day review period. Each defendant and its insurance company has 90 days to investigate and respond, either by rejecting the claim, making an offer to settle, or offering arbitration on damages. The statute of limitations is paused during this period.
5. Filing suit. Once the 90-day period ends, the lawsuit may be filed. West Palm Beach medical malpractice lawsuits are filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County’s circuit court, with records maintained by the Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts.

The presuit process is detailed, deadline-driven, and unforgiving. Gordon & Partners handles the entire process for you, from retaining the expert to serving the Notice of Intent, so nothing about the procedure becomes the reason a valid claim fails.

A successful medical malpractice claim can recover two categories of damages.

Economic damages cover your financial losses:

• Past and future medical bills, including corrective surgery and rehabilitation
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity
• Long-term and attendant care
• Medical equipment, home modifications, and therapy

Non-economic damages compensate for the human toll:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Disfigurement
• Loss of consortium for a spouse

Punitive damages may be available in rare cases of egregious misconduct, but they are the exception. When medical negligence is fatal, the personal representative of the estate may bring a wrongful death claim through our wrongful death attorney team; note that Florida law limits which survivors can recover non-economic damages in medical negligence deaths.

Gordon & Partners recovered a $3.6 million settlement for a 54-year-old woman who suffered brain damage during hip replacement surgery when the anesthesiologist failed to recognize a nine-minute drop in her respiratory levels. You can review that case and others on our verdicts and settlements page. Past results do not guarantee a future outcome, but they show what is possible when a malpractice claim is built properly.

We handle every medical malpractice case on a contingency fee. You pay nothing up front, and you pay no attorney’s fees unless we recover for you. Our fees explained.

Medical malpractice litigation is expensive, fiercely defended, and technically demanding. The firm you hire needs the resources, the experience, and the willingness to try the case. Gordon & Partners offers:

• Over $1 Billion recovered firm-wide for injured clients.
• 21 attorneys with 200+ years of combined experience. This is not a solo shop; a team works your case. Meet our attorneys.
• Founded in 1993, with attorneys bringing 40+ years of individual trial experience to West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County.
• Recognition by Super Lawyers, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating.
• No fees unless we win, with free 24/7 case evaluations and Spanish-speaking staff.

Our attorneys have handled claims involving care at facilities throughout Palm Beach County, including St. Mary’s Medical Center and Good Samaritan Medical Center, and we know the experts, the defense firms, and the 15th Judicial Circuit judges these cases come before.

Is it worth suing for medical negligence? It depends on whether the four elements above can be proven with expert support and whether the damages justify the cost of litigation. Serious, permanent harm caused by a clear departure from the standard of care is usually worth pursuing. A free consultation, with your medical records in hand, is where you get an honest answer.

How hard is it to win a medical malpractice case? Harder than most injury claims. Providers are well-insured and well-defended, the presuit process eliminates weak claims before they are filed, and juries tend to give doctors the benefit of the doubt. The cases that succeed are the ones built on complete records, credible experts, and a firm prepared to try them.