Section 766.203(2) requires a medical-malpractice claimant to conduct a pre-suit investigation. As part of that investigation, the claimant must submit “a verified written medical expert opinion from a medical expert as defined in section 766.202(6), at the time the notice of intent to initiate litigation is mailed, which statement shall corroborate reasonable grounds to support the claim of medical negligence.” § 766.203(2), Fla. Stat. (2019). Section 766.202(6), in turn, defines “[m]edical expert” as “a person duly and regularly engaged in the practice of his or her profession who
holds a health care professional degree from a university or college and who meets the requirements of an expert witness as set forth in section 766.102.”
Section 766.102 provides, in relevant part:
(5) A person may not give expert testimony concerning the prevailing professional standard of care unless the person is a health care provider who holds an active and valid license and conducts a complete review of the pertinent
medical records and meets the following criteria:
(a) If the health care provider against whom or on whose behalf the testimony is offered is a specialist, the expert witness must:
Specialize in the same specialty as the health care provider against whom or on whose behalf the testimony is offered; and have devoted professional time during the 3 years immediately preceding the date of the occurrence that is the basis for the action to the active clinical practice of, or consulting with respect to, the same specialty; instruction of students in an accredited health professional school or accredited residency or clinical research program in the same specialty; or a clinical research program that is affiliated with an accredited health professional school or accredited residency or clinical research program in the same specialty.
The Fifth District Court of Appeal State of Florida stated in its November 15, 2024 opinion in a Florida medical malpractice case in which the plaintiff’s expert had not evaluated or treated any individual in the context of a
physician-patient relationship since December 31, 2014—four years before plaintiff’s surgeries, and more than six years before plaintiff filed her suit, and whose practice during that timeframe consisted solely of legal consulting, “we must conclude that section 766.102 uses the term “health care provider” according to its plain meaning: one who provides health care to patients. Thus, a legal consultant who has no patients is not a health care provider. Because Dr. Shure did not provide any health care to any patient after December 31, 2014, he failed to meet section 766.102(5)’s requirement that an expert be a health care provider.”
Source Moncrief v. Kollmer, Case No. 5D2023-1263.
If you or a loved one have suffered serious harm (or worse) as a result of medical negligence in Florida or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Florida medical malpractice attorney, or a medical malpractice attorney in your state, who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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