Florida lawmakers pass wrongful death legislation
It’s now up to Gov. Ron DeSantis to decide whether to repeal a 35-year-old Florida law that bars adult children and their parents from recovering non-economic damages in wrongful death cases tied to medical negligence.
The Senate voted 33-4 late last week to sign off on HB 6017 by Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R-Ft. Pierce.
Senate Judiciary Chair Clay Yarborough, a Jacksonville Republican, sponsored the companion, SB 734.
“This bill repeals Statute 768.218 and would allow the narrow group of survivors that I described to recover non-economic damages, that is the bill,” Yarborough said.
HB 6017 cleared the House, 104-6, in March.
The measure would reverse an exception lawmakers made in 1990.
As they expanded the wrongful death act to cover more survivors, lawmakers made adult children 25 and older and the parents of adult children ineligible for non-economic damages in medical negligence cases — when the decedent is unmarried or does not have minor children.
Supporters at the time said the restrictions were necessary to control rising medical malpractice rates that were driving doctors from the state.
Critics, including Yarborough, now say the decision was arbitrary and counter to the legislation’s intent to expand access to justice.
“This is a 35-year-old law that needs to be repealed,” he said. “It’s unjust. It shouldn’t be on the books.”
Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Ft. Pierce health care executive, is a leading critic of repealing the restrictions.
Harrell warned that Miami doctors are already paying $240,000 in medical malpractice premiums, among the highest in the nation.
She also warned that bill would hamstring efforts to recruit the 7,872 general practitioners that Florida will need by 2035 to keep pace with a growing population.
“I will tell you that this is going to have a devastating impact on medical malpractice premiums, both for hospitals and providers,” she said.
Supporters, including the family members of medical negligence victims, argued the bill is necessary to hold practitioners accountable.
Sabrina Davis, the daughter of a 62-year-old retired Navy submariner, Keith Davis, described for a Senate committee how her father died in a Tampa hospital after a physician missed symptoms of fatal blood clots.
Davis said she refused the hospital’s offer to cancel her father’s medical debt and cover funeral expenses, only to learn later that no attorneys would take her case because of the restrictions.
Earlier versions of the bill were called the “Keith Davis Family Protection Act.”
“God gave me one dad, he was my voice of reason, he taught me to fight,” she said. “I do believe Florida is better than this. I do believe we can attract good doctors and get rid of the bad ones.”
Miami Sen. Jason Pizzo, a former Democratic Leader until he resigned to become an independent, argued that lifting the restrictions is in the interest of justice.
The bill would have only a “de minimus” impact on insurance rates, Pizzo assured.
“If this was going to represent even 10%, 15%, 30% of outstanding cases, this would necessitate a long conversation,” he said.
Pizzo said the Legislature should do more to help physicians struggling with high medical malpractice insurance rates.
“But as we found over the last few years, we haven’t always done a lot to help even Florida families, much less medical malpractice rates or property insurance or any of those things,” he said.
