- March 23, 2025
The Florida House is scheduled Wednesday, March 26, to take up a proposal that would change a decades-old law and clear the way for more medical-malpractice lawsuits over patient deaths.
The proposal (HB 6017), filed by Rep. Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, and Rep. Johanna Lopez, D-Orlando, has sparked a lobbying battle, with plaintiffs’ attorneys and the senior-advocacy group AARP backing it and health-care and business groups opposing it.
The bill would undo part of a 1990 law that involves wrongful-death lawsuits and what are known as “non-economic” damages for such things as pain and suffering. That part of the law prevents people from seeking non-economic damages in certain circumstances.
People who are 25 years old or older cannot seek such damages in medical-malpractice cases involving deaths of their parents. Also, parents cannot seek such damages in malpractice cases involving the deaths of their children who are 25 or older.
Supporters of the bill say repealing the 1990 law is needed to hold medical providers accountable for negligence that causes deaths. Opponents say it will drive up medical-malpractice insurance costs and worsen problems with physician shortages.
The bill received almost unanimous support in the House Civil Justice Claims Subcommittee and the House Judiciary Committee. A Senate version (SB 734) also was approved this week by the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee.
