Second such rule change
The Florida Supreme Court has approved another appellate procedure rule change. This one will allow defendants to file appeals during the course of the legal action – rather than waiting until the end of the trial – on decisions denying a challenge to expert witness qualifications in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
The Supreme Court’s Order is expected to make it easier for defendants in medical malpractice cases to challenge qualifications of expert witnesses called by the plaintiff. “This is an extremely important decision for the defense,” Scott Mendlestein, managing shareholder with the Falk Waas law firm told the Insurance Journal. The firm handles insurance defense and medical malpractice defense cases. Previous to this order, a defendant in such a case usually had to wait until the end of a trial to appeal a motion to dismiss based on the expert’s qualifications.
The rule change was prompted by the Florida Legislature’s 2016 changes to the Medical Malpractice Act. The changes were meant to limit lawsuits and damages and specifically added a requirement that a plaintiff’s expert witness be a physician in the same specialty with three years of experience. But it did not specifically allow for an interlocutory (during the course of the case) appeal, something the Supreme Court acknowledged this month while deciding a related medical malpractice case appeal.
This is the second recent change to Florida’s interlocutory appeal procedures. In January 2022, the Supreme Court approved a change to allow such appeals for punitive damage demands. You can read more about this latest decision and how it’s expected to save litigation costs for both sides, in the Insurance Journal’s article.
LMA Newsletter of 7-24-23
