Florida Birth Injury Lawyer
You were told the delivery went normally, and it did not. One question decides whether there is a civil claim at all, and it gets answered first. We can take it from here. Call 954-522-5800 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. We have won these claims for Floridians from the Keys to the Panhandle, and we work them from five offices between Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers.
Under Fla. Stat. § 766.303, the NICA plan compensates certain birth-related neurological injuries irrespective of fault, and where it applies it excludes most other remedies against those involved in labor, delivery and immediate postdelivery resuscitation. A civil action survives only in narrow circumstances, including clear and convincing evidence of bad faith or willful and wanton disregard.
Winning birth injury claims for Floridians for more than thirty years
A birth injury claim arrives at a hard time, usually while the bills are still coming in and nobody has told you what happens next. You do not have to work it out on your own. The attorneys in this photograph have won these cases across Florida since 1993, from the Keys to the Panhandle, and one of them will handle yours from the first call to the last check.
Call 954-522-5800 for a free consult and a trial lawyer will tell you today whether you have a case. You pay us nothing unless we win, and we work from five offices between Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers.
Meet the attorneys →What Florida law does with a birth injury claim
The explanation you were given does not match what you remember, and the delivery records are held by the people who wrote them. Meanwhile you are booking specialists, taking time off you do not have, and trying to work out what a lifetime of care costs. Reading those records properly is what we do, from the first call.
A birth injury case in Florida starts with a question no other injury case asks: whether the claim belongs in court at all. A state plan takes certain severe injuries out of the legal system entirely, and its boundaries are drawn by weight, timing and paperwork. Below is where those lines fall and what happens on each side of them.
Florida directs certain severe birth-related brain and spinal cord injuries into a state compensation plan instead of a lawsuit. Where the plan applies it is the exclusive remedy against the participating physician and hospital. Whether a case falls inside it turns on the infant's birth weight, the cause and timing of the injury, and whether the required notice was given.
The deadline that ends a Florida birth injury claim
Birth injury deadlines are the most forgiving in Florida law and still catch families out, because the injury is frequently recognized only years later.
Two years from discovery, four years at the outside
Fla. Stat. § 95.11 gives two years from when the incident was discovered or should have been discovered with due diligence, subject to an outer limit of four years from the incident itself. Where fraud, concealment or intentional misrepresentation prevented discovery, that extends to two years from discovery capped at seven years.
The protection for children, which is real and narrow
Fla. Stat. § 95.11 provides that the four-year limit does not bar an action brought on behalf of a child on or before the child's eighth birthday. That is genuinely more time than any other injury claim gets, and it exists because these injuries reveal themselves as a child misses milestones rather than on the day of delivery.
It is still a deadline. A family who first understands what happened when a child starts school has years rather than months, and families who wait past that have nothing.
The presuit process, where the case is a court case
A claim in court is a medical negligence claim, so Fla. Stat. § 766.106 applies: a notice of intent before filing, a 90-day investigation period, and tolling of the limitations period while it runs. Fla. Stat. § 766.104 adds a separate automatic 90-day extension on petition to the clerk.
The records, requested early and in full
The mother's prenatal record, the labor and delivery record including the fetal monitoring strips, the anesthesia record, the resuscitation record, cord blood gas results, and the newborn's chart including imaging. Fetal monitoring strips are the central document in most of these cases and they are frequently the hardest to get complete.
Ask for the audit trail as well, which shows who accessed and amended the chart and when.
Who can be held answerable
Who can be sued depends first on whether the state plan applies. That question is answered before anything else, because where it applies it removes the ordinary defendants entirely.
- The obstetrician, and whether they participate in the plan. Fla. Stat. § 766.302 defines a participating physician as one licensed in Florida who practices obstetrics or performs obstetrical services and who paid, or was exempt from, the plan assessment for the year of the injury. Participation is not uniform, and whether the physician who delivered your child was participating is a matter of record rather than of impression.
- The hospital. Answerable for its nursing staff, its monitoring, its response times, its staffing and whether the escalation policies it wrote were followed. Where the plan applies to the physician it may also cover the hospital, and where it does not the hospital remains an ordinary defendant.
- A nurse-midwife or the practice employing them. Frequently employed by a group rather than by the hospital, with separate coverage. Who employed each person present at the delivery is worked out from contracts rather than from the letterhead.
- The anesthesiologist. Where the injury involves anesthesia in a delivery or an emergency cesarean, this is usually a separately contracted group with its own policy.
- A public hospital or state-employed faculty. Several Florida hospital systems are public bodies and some obstetric care is delivered by university faculty. That puts the claim under Fla. Stat. § 768.28: presuit notice to the agency and, in most cases, to the Department of Financial Services, a 90-day response period on a malpractice claim, and caps of $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.
How a Florida birth injury case actually runs
One threshold question decides everything that follows, and it should be answered in the first weeks rather than after a year of work.
- Establish whether the state plan applies. Fla. Stat. § 766.302 defines a birth-related neurological injury as injury to the brain or spinal cord of a live infant weighing at least 2,500 grams for a single gestation, or 2,000 grams for a multiple gestation, caused by oxygen deprivation or mechanical injury occurring in the course of labor, delivery or resuscitation in the immediate postdelivery period in a hospital, which leaves the infant permanently and substantially both mentally and physically impaired. Every element of that is measurable, and a case failing any one of them is not inside the plan.
- Understand what the plan does if it applies. Fla. Stat. § 766.303 makes the plan the exclusive remedy for a birth-related neurological injury against a participating physician and a participating hospital, subject to the exceptions the statute sets out. That means no lawsuit, no jury and no damages for the loss itself against those parties. It is the single most consequential fact in this area of law.
- Check whether the required notice was actually given. Fla. Stat. § 766.316 requires participating physicians and hospitals to give obstetrical patients notice, on forms supplied by the association, containing a clear and concise explanation of a patient's rights and limitations under the plan, except where the patient arrives in a medical emergency or giving notice is not practicable. A signature acknowledging receipt creates a rebuttable presumption that notice was given.
- Why that notice question decides real cases. Whether it was given, when, and to whom is frequently disputed, and it is one of the routes by which a family who was never told about the plan may still have a court claim. It is answered from the chart, the signed forms and the hospital's own procedures rather than from anybody's recollection years later.
- Where it is a court case, the medical negligence route applies. Fla. Stat. § 766.104 requires the attorney's reasonable investigation and a supporting written opinion from a qualifying physician, Fla. Stat. § 766.102 restricts who may give that opinion by specialty and recent practice, and Fla. Stat. § 766.106 requires the notice of intent and the 90-day investigation before filing.
- The proof is the monitoring record. Fetal heart tracings read against the nursing notes, the timing of every decision, the interval between a decision to deliver and the delivery itself, and the cord gases and newborn imaging that establish when the injury occurred. These cases are won on a timeline built minute by minute.
- The future is costed before anything settles. A life care planner working from the treating physicians sets out therapy, equipment, medication, schooling support, home modification and attendant care over a lifetime, and an economist brings it to present value. In this practice that document is the case.
What the claim is worth, and how that number is built
The gap between what the plan pays and what a court claim is worth is the largest gap in Florida injury law, and it is worth understanding precisely.
What the plan pays
Fla. Stat. § 766.31 covers actual expenses for medically necessary and reasonable medical, hospital, habilitative and training care, with specific benefits including family psychotherapeutic services and housing assistance. Expenses already incurred are paid, and future expenses are paid as they arise rather than in a lump sum.
For a family facing a lifetime of care that has real value, and it arrives without having to prove that anybody did anything wrong.
The award to the parents, and the death benefit
Fla. Stat. § 766.31 sets an award to the parents or guardians that could not exceed $100,000 originally and, from January 1, 2021, may not exceed $250,000, rising 3 percent each January thereafter. A death benefit of $50,000 is provided where the infant dies.
That figure is the whole of what the plan pays for the loss itself. It is not a jury's assessment of what has happened to a child and it is not meant to be.
What a court claim covers instead
The entire lifetime cost of care, the earning capacity a child will never have, and the pain, suffering and loss of the ability to live an ordinary life. On a permanent neurological injury the first of those alone regularly runs to many millions, established by the life care plan rather than argued.
The caps that do not apply
Fla. Stat. § 766.118 still contains limits on noneconomic damages in medical negligence cases, and Florida courts do not apply them: the Florida Supreme Court held them unconstitutional under the state's equal protection clause in Estate of McCall v. United States, 134 So. 3d 894 (Fla. 2014) and North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan, 219 So. 3d 49 (Fla. 2017).
Fla. Stat. § 768.81 bars recovery entirely by anybody more than 50 percent at fault for their own harm, and expressly excludes medical negligence from that rule.
What is repaid out of a recovery
Medicaid and health insurance are repaid from what is recovered, with Fla. Stat. § 768.76 keeping those payments from being deducted from the award because the repayment right already exists. On a case of this size those claims are substantial and reducing them is a serious piece of work.
How the money is held for a child
A recovery for a child does not go to the parents to spend. It is held under court supervision, and where a child will need means-tested benefits for life the structure has to be built so a settlement does not disqualify them from the very programs they depend on. That planning is part of the case rather than an afterthought.
What changes from one part of Florida to another
Where a baby is delivered changes the answer to the threshold question, which makes geography matter here more than in most practices.
Participation in the plan is not uniform
Whether the physician who delivered your child participates, and whether the hospital does, varies between practices and between hospitals in the same city. Two families with identical injuries at hospitals a few miles apart can be in completely different legal positions, and neither of them was told so at the time.
Public hospital systems
Some of Florida's largest delivery hospitals sit inside public hospital districts, which brings Fla. Stat. § 768.28 and its caps of $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. On a lifetime care claim that ceiling is a fraction of the loss, and it is established at the very start rather than discovered late.
Distance to a higher level of care
Not every Florida hospital has a neonatal intensive care unit or an obstetrician in the building overnight. Where a delivery needed escalation and the escalation involved a transfer, the timeline of that transfer becomes central, and it looks very different in a large metropolitan hospital than in a small one.
A proven record, anywhere in Florida
Our five offices run from Fort Lauderdale to Fort Myers, and birth injury work is not limited to the counties they sit in.
The insurance behind a Florida birth injury claim
Two entirely different sources of money sit behind these claims, and which one applies is decided by the threshold question above.
The plan, funded by assessments rather than by a policy
Where the plan applies, benefits come from a fund paid into by participating physicians and hospitals rather than from a liability insurer. It pays medical and habilitative expenses as they are incurred over a lifetime, which is a genuine strength, alongside the fixed parental award described above.
Physician and hospital liability coverage, where it is a court case
Fla. Stat. § 458.320 requires a Florida physician to show financial responsibility at modest levels, $100,000 per claim and $300,000 in the aggregate, rising to $250,000 and $750,000 with hospital staff privileges, and permits some physicians to carry no insurance at all provided patients are given notice. On a lifetime care claim those figures are nowhere near the loss.
The hospital is usually where the coverage is
Large systems commonly carry substantial coverage or run their own self-insurance trust. That is why establishing the hospital's own failures, in monitoring, staffing and escalation, matters as much as establishing the physician's.
Finding every layer
Fla. Stat. § 627.4137 requires the limits of each known policy, including excess and umbrella layers, to be disclosed in a sworn statement within 30 days of a written request. On a birth injury claim there are usually several: the physician's, the group's, the anesthesia provider's and the facility's.
What pays for care in the meantime
Health insurance and, for many families, Medicaid and the state programs for children with special health needs. All of it is repaid out of any recovery, and none of it should be delayed while a claim is worked out.
Inside NICA or outside it
What the plan covers, and what it does not
NICA applies to a defined category of birth-related neurological injury resulting in substantial mental and physical impairment. Families inside it receive compensation without proving negligence, which is a genuine benefit where fault would be hard to establish. It is also a ceiling, because it replaces the civil claim.
Many birth injuries fall outside the plan entirely: injuries that are not neurological, injuries that do not meet the substantial impairment threshold, and harm caused outside labor, delivery and immediate resuscitation. Those proceed as ordinary medical negligence claims under chapter 766, with its presuit investigation and 90-day notice.
Why the first assessment matters so much
Getting this wrong in either direction is costly. A family steered into NICA when the injury falls outside it gives up a civil claim for less than it was worth. A family that litigates a claim NICA covers can lose years before the exclusivity question is resolved against them.
We would rather tell a family early and honestly which side of that line their child is on, including when the answer is that the plan applies and a lawsuit is not available.
Who would handle your case
Your case is handled by one of the trial lawyers below, and you will know which of them has it from the first conversation. They do birth injury work week in and week out, they will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.
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Richard P. Pravato Founding & Managing Attorney Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar since 2004, and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Injury cases exclusively since 1996. Full profile → -
Brett J. Yonon Senior Trial Attorney Selected to Florida Super Lawyers in 2024 and 2025. Nearly two decades in Florida courts, including a $3.5 million funeral home negligence verdict. Full profile →
Birth Injury questions we are asked
What is NICA and does it apply to my child?
NICA is Florida’s Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan. It compensates a defined category of neurological injury occurring during labor, delivery or immediate postdelivery resuscitation that results in substantial mental and physical impairment, without requiring proof of negligence. Whether it applies turns on the medical records, which is the first thing we review.
If NICA applies, can we still sue?
Usually not against those directly involved in labor, delivery and immediate resuscitation, because the plan is an exclusive remedy where it applies. The statute preserves a civil action where there is clear and convincing evidence of bad faith, malicious purpose, or willful and wanton disregard, and that suit must be brought before and instead of accepting a NICA award.
Is cerebral palsy always a birth injury?
No, and it is important to say so plainly. Cerebral palsy has many causes, a number of which have nothing to do with the care delivered. Establishing that a particular injury was caused by a departure from the standard of care requires the records and a qualified expert, not an assumption.
Questions that apply to any Florida injury claim, fees, deadlines, recorded statements and shared fault, are answered on our injury claim FAQ. What we have recovered is on recent case results.
Five Florida offices
We take birth injury claims statewide. Each market below has its own page on this claim, with that office's address, its direct number and the court a case there is filed in.
Fort Lauderdale birth injury claims
2101 W Commercial Blvd, Fort Lauderdale. Serving Broward County.
View →Miami birth injury claims
1111 Brickell Avenue, Miami. Serving Miami-Dade County.
View →West Palm Beach birth injury claims
2101 Vista Parkway, West Palm Beach. Serving Palm Beach County.
View →Boynton Beach birth injury claims
1375 E Gateway Blvd, Boynton Beach. Serving Palm Beach County.
View →Fort Myers birth injury claims
1825 Colonial Blvd, Fort Myers. Serving Lee County.
View →Other claims we handle
Three of the closest to this one. The full list is on our Florida practice areas page.
Tell us what happened
A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. If it is not, we will say so.
We take cases anywhere in Florida.