Florida Supreme Court Rules Medical Malpractice Caps Aren’t Retroactive

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A 2003 law capping medical malpractice lawsuit awards at $500,000 can’t be applied retroactively.

That’s what the Supreme Court ruled in a Miami-Dade County case in which a woman suffered permanent damage to her leg from unnecessary surgery in early 2003.

A jury awarded Kimberly Ann Miles $1.5 million in 2006, but Dr. Daniel Weingrad appealed the case saying the award should be limited to the $500,000 cap then-Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law on Sept. 15, 2003.

An appeals court agreed with Weingrad, who operated on Miles more than seven months before the law took effect.

But the Supreme Court said the cap doesn’t apply because the damage was done before the law was passed.