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Asked 4 months ago - Pembroke Pines, FL
FlagI've read that the statute of limitations can take place from the last day of treatment, which seems odd, but alot of patients continue to receive treatment after the date of the injury. e.g. the injury took place april 2012, but I was still seeing doctors for the adverse effects in september 2012
What an interesting question. And the answer is that IT DEPENDS. This is a very complex issue and there are dozens and dozens of cases reviewing fact patterns of each specific set of facts. The printed rule is that it is two years from when you should know that there was an injury which could have been caused by medical negligence, but not greater than 4 unless there was fraud or concealment and then 7. The answer is that only a trained professional in this field can give it his/her best answer and sometimes we have to guess because facts are not always simple.
In Florida, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice is two years from when the patient either knew, or should have known with the exercise of reasonable diligence of the injury. Florida also has a statute of repose that says unless there is fraud, concealment, or misrepresentation, under no circumstances may a medical malpractice case be brought more than four years after the actual incident of malpractice.
The bottom line is the SOL clock is always ticking. Consult an experienced medical malpractice lawyer now.
These cases can take a while to obtain the medical records, review by counsel, and then submit to an expert for medical review and opinion -- all while the statute of limitations clock is ticking. Any experienced attorney is going to want to have adequate time to do this, and you should not wait to obtain a consult.
The statute begins to run the date you knew your legal rights had been violated.
You seem to be well within the statute under Florida law.
You may wish to contact us www.floridamedicalmalpracticefirm.com
I assume the malpractice occurred in the state of Florida. Otherwise this answer is meaningless.
If the injury took place in April 2012, the soon as the statute of limitations could expire will be April 2014, two years from the date of injury. Technically, Florida has a "discovery" rule meaning that the statute does not begin to run until you knew or should have known of the malpractice. So, perhaps the statute of limitations will not begin to run until sometime between April and September 2012, so it will not expire until two years from that date.
Academically, if there is fraud, the outside limit for the statute of limitations in Florida is seven years, and if there is no fraud the outside limit is four years (even if you do not know that you were injured).
But if there was really malpractice, you should be consulting with the malpractice lawyer now, and not wait until close to the end of the statute of limitations. There are pre-suit investigations required before any definitive action can be taken.
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