Broward County FL Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Broward County is home to about 1.94 million people and one of the most concentrated hospital landscapes in Florida: 15 acute-care hospitals spread from Deerfield Beach and Margate in the north to Weston, Pembroke Pines, and Miramar in the west and Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale on the coast. Most of that care runs through three large systems — Memorial Healthcare System, Broward Health, and HCA Florida — alongside independent and specialty providers. When care at that scale goes wrong, the questions that follow are rarely simple: which provider made which decision, what the records actually show, and whether the harm could have been prevented. Rafferty Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa (RDCY) investigates medical malpractice claims across Broward County. This page is the county hub for our Florida medical malpractice practice: it explains how Broward’s hospital systems are organized, how Florida’s presuit process works before a case can be filed, where Broward cases are heard — the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale — and how to find the city-level page closest to where the care happened. If you are not sure whether what happened was malpractice, that uncertainty is normal. A bad outcome alone does not prove negligence, and a provider’s assurance that everything was done correctly does not end the inquiry either. Both questions are answered by records and qualified medical review, not by first impressions.
Were You or a Loved One Harmed by Medical Negligence in Broward County?
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Medical Care Across Broward County: Three Systems, Fifteen Hospitals
No single hospital defines care in Broward County. A patient’s course of treatment often crosses systems and cities — an emergency visit in one hospital, imaging read somewhere else, surgery or follow-up care with an affiliated group across town. Understanding which system provided which part of the care is usually the first real step in evaluating a claim, because records, witnesses, and decision-makers sit with each provider separately. Memorial Healthcare System, the public hospital district serving southern Broward, anchors care in the south and west of the county. Its flagship, Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, is a Level I trauma center; the system also operates Memorial Hospital West and Memorial Hospital Pembroke in Pembroke Pines and Memorial Hospital Miramar. Families in those communities can start with our Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, and Miramar pages. Broward Health, the public district serving northern Broward, operates Broward Health Coral Springs and Broward Health North in Deerfield Beach, the referral point for much of the care received by Pompano Beach residents. Our Coral Springs, Deerfield Beach, and Pompano Beach pages cover those catchments. Because both Memorial and Broward Health are public hospital districts, claims involving their facilities can carry additional claim-notice requirements and damages rules that do not apply to private providers — one more reason early legal review matters in this county. HCA Florida operates HCA Florida Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation — the hospital many Sunrise residents rely on — HCA Florida University Hospital in Davie, the Woodmont hospital campus in Tamarac, and HCA Florida Northwest Hospital in Margate. See our Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Tamarac, and Margate pages. Weston is served by Cleveland Clinic Florida’s Weston hospital, and Lauderhill residents are in the catchment of Florida Medical Center in neighboring Lauderdale Lakes; our Weston and Lauderhill pages address those areas, and our Fort Lauderdale page covers the county seat, where the courthouse and several of the county’s largest facilities sit. Wherever the care occurred, the legal analysis follows the same Florida framework. What changes from city to city is the practical work: collecting complete records from every system involved, identifying each provider’s role, and matching the timeline to the records before memories fade and charts are amended or supplemented.What Counts as Medical Malpractice Under Florida Law
Florida law measures a provider’s care against the prevailing professional standard of care — the level of care, skill, and treatment that a reasonably prudent similar provider would deliver under similar circumstances. A malpractice claim generally requires proof that the provider fell below that standard and that the failure caused injury. A known complication, an unsuccessful treatment, or a condition that worsened despite appropriate care is not, by itself, malpractice. Equally, a preventable error does not stop being an error because it is common. The distinction is made by reviewing the full record against the standard of care with qualified medical experts — the same review Florida law requires before suit.Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis
Missed, mistaken, and delayed diagnoses — of cancer, stroke, heart attack, infection, and other time-sensitive conditions — are among the most consequential claims Broward patients bring. The investigation compares what the symptoms, imaging, and laboratory results showed at each visit with what a prudent provider would have done with that information, and asks whether an earlier diagnosis would likely have changed the outcome.Surgical and Anesthesia Errors
Surgical claims can involve wrong-site or wrong-procedure surgery, retained instruments, preventable infection, anesthesia dosing and monitoring failures, and inadequate post-operative care. These cases often turn on operative reports, anesthesia records, and the hospital’s own protocols.Medication Errors
Wrong medication, wrong dose, dangerous interactions, and failures to account for documented allergies can occur in hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies across the county. Medication claims require tracing who ordered, dispensed, and administered the drug — frequently three different providers.Birth Injuries and Maternal Harm
Failures in fetal monitoring, delayed emergency cesarean delivery, and mismanaged maternal complications can cause lifelong harm. Birth-injury investigations reconstruct minute-by-minute records from labor and delivery units in Broward’s maternity hospitals.Emergency Department and Hospital Failures
Emergency claims include delayed triage, premature discharge, failure to order indicated testing, and breakdowns in communication during handoffs between shifts, departments, and facilities. In a county where patients routinely transfer between systems, handoff failures are a recurring theme — and a recurring source of preventable harm.How Could Medical Malpractice Affect Your Legal Options?
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Florida’s Presuit Process: What Happens Before a Broward Case Can Be Filed
Florida does not allow a medical malpractice lawsuit to begin with a complaint. Chapter 766 of the Florida Statutes requires a presuit investigation and notice process first, and cases that skip or mishandle it can be dismissed. The process is demanding by design, and it is where Broward claims are built — or lost — long before a jury is involved. Investigation and expert corroboration. Before notice is sent, the claim must be investigated and corroborated by a qualified medical expert in the same or a similar specialty, as sections 766.203 and 766.2032 of the Florida Statutes require. That expert reviews the records and verifies that there are reasonable grounds to believe the care fell below the standard and caused injury. RDCY coordinates this review as part of evaluating whether a claim should proceed at all. Notice of intent. The prospective defendant — each doctor, practice, or hospital involved — must then receive a notice of intent to initiate litigation under section 766.106, together with the corroborating expert opinion. Sending notice starts a presuit investigation period, generally 90 days, during which the provider and its insurer review the claim and the parties exchange information. The limitations clock is tolled while presuit runs, but the tolling rules are technical and unforgiving of delay. Filing in the Seventeenth Circuit. If presuit does not resolve the claim, suit is filed in the circuit court for the county where the claim arose. Broward County cases are heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. Claims involving the county’s public hospital districts can add a separate layer: governmental claim-notice requirements under Florida’s sovereign-immunity statute, section 768.28, which carries its own deadlines and damages limits. Identifying every prospective defendant early — private, corporate, and public — is essential to getting both processes right.Deadlines for Broward County Medical Malpractice Claims
Florida’s limitations period for medical malpractice is short. Under section 95.11(4)(b) of the Florida Statutes, an action generally must be commenced within two years from the time the incident is discovered, or should have been discovered with reasonable diligence. An outer statute of repose bars claims brought more than four years after the incident itself, regardless of discovery, subject to limited exceptions — including rules for concealment and for injuries to young children. The presuit notice process interacts with these deadlines through specific tolling provisions, which means the calendar for a Broward claim is rarely a single date. Two practical consequences follow. First, waiting for a provider’s internal review, a billing dispute, or a hoped-for recovery can consume the very period in which records must be gathered and an expert review completed. Second, claims involving Memorial Healthcare System or Broward Health facilities may require a timely written claim to the public district under section 768.28 in addition to chapter 766 presuit notice. Families who believe negligent care in Broward County caused serious harm should have the deadlines assessed promptly, on their own facts, rather than relying on any general statement — including this one. The presuit process itself changes the calendar. Serving a notice of intent tolls the limitations period while the presuit investigation runs, and when presuit ends without resolution, the statutes leave the claimant the greater of the time that remained when notice was served or a short additional window measured from the presuit response in which to file suit. That arithmetic is unforgiving in both directions: notice served too late in the period leaves almost no room to complete an expert review beforehand, while notice served without the required corroboration may not toll anything at all. It is one reason the investigation described above should begin months, not weeks, before any deadline a family has calculated on its own — a family’s estimate of when an injury was “discovered” is frequently different from the date a court would apply, particularly where a complication was explained at the time as an expected risk and only later records showed otherwise.What to Do if You Suspect Medical Malpractice in Broward County
Put Your Health First
Get appropriate follow-up care, including from a new provider if you have lost confidence in the original one. Nothing in a legal claim requires you to keep receiving care you do not trust, and your recovery — and the record of it — matters more than any litigation consideration.Preserve Information
Keep discharge paperwork, medication lists, appointment records, bills, portal messages, and your own contemporaneous notes about symptoms, conversations, and dates. If care crossed systems — for example, an emergency visit at a Broward Health hospital followed by surgery at a Memorial facility — note each location and date. That cross-system timeline is often the skeleton of the whole investigation.Request Relevant Medical Records
You generally have the right to request your medical records from each provider, and complete records — including imaging, nursing notes, and medication administration records — are what an expert review actually examines. Requesting records does not commit you to a claim, and you do not need to have assembled everything before speaking with a lawyer.Seek a Legal Evaluation Promptly
Because Florida requires expert corroboration before notice and presuit before suit, an evaluation is not a formality — it is the first stage of the claim itself. An early review also protects the deadlines described above, including the separate notice track for Broward’s public hospital districts.How RDCY Investigates a Broward County Case
RDCY’s investigation starts with the complete course of care, followed across every facility and practice involved rather than one chart at a time. We obtain and organize the records, build a dated timeline, and have the care reviewed by qualified medical experts in the relevant specialties — the review chapter 766 requires, done to the standard a court will expect. Where the records support a claim, we prepare and serve presuit notice on each prospective defendant and manage the presuit investigation period, including the exchange of information and any presuit discovery the statutes allow. If the claim does not resolve in presuit, we litigate in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit and prepare the case for trial: depositions of the treating providers, expert disclosure and challenge practice, and damages proof that accounts for the full effect of the injury — additional treatment, lost earning capacity, and the day-to-day consequences for the patient and family. Not every inquiry becomes a claim, and we will say so when the records and expert review do not support one. That candor is part of the process Florida law builds in, and Broward families are entitled to it before they commit to litigation.Why Broward County Families Choose RDCY
RDCY is a Florida trial practice built around catastrophic injury and medical negligence litigation. Sean C. Domnick is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar and served as President of the American Association for Justice in 2023–2024; his professional recognition includes Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” for Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs in West Palm Beach in 2024. Nicole Kruegel’s recognition includes Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs and selection to Florida Super Lawyers. The firm’s published results and recognition are set out in the sections below, drawn from the firm’s own verified material. For Broward County clients, what matters most is local fluency: knowing that a claim may run through Memorial, Broward Health, and HCA records at once; that two of those systems are public districts with their own claim rules; and that the case will be heard in Fort Lauderdale. RDCY brings that fluency together with the trial experience these cases demand. There is no fee to have a Broward County malpractice concern reviewed — call (561) 516-5168.Related Medical Malpractice Pages in Broward County
- Broward County
- Fort Lauderdale
- Pembroke Pines
- Hollywood
- Miramar
- Coral Springs
- Pompano Beach
- Davie
- Sunrise
- Plantation
- Deerfield Beach
- Lauderhill
- Tamarac
- Weston
- Margate
- Coconut Creek
Professional Recognition
Recognition applies to the named attorneys and selection years. See the linked profiles for details.
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Broward County Medical Malpractice FAQs
These answers give general information about medical malpractice claims in Broward County, Florida. They are not legal advice about any specific situation; deadlines and presuit requirements are applied to the facts of each case.Where are Broward County medical malpractice cases filed?
Claims arising from care in Broward County are filed in Florida’s Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, after Florida’s presuit process is completed.
Before a complaint can be filed, chapter 766 requires a presuit investigation, corroboration by a qualified medical expert, and notice of intent to each prospective defendant, followed by the presuit investigation period.Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine; Florida Courts — Circuit Trial Courts
What is Florida’s presuit process for a claim against a Broward County hospital?
Under sections 766.106 and 766.203 of the Florida Statutes, the claim must first be investigated and corroborated by a qualified medical expert.
The prospective defendant then receives a notice of intent with the expert’s corroborating opinion, which opens a presuit investigation period — generally 90 days — for the provider and its insurer to evaluate the claim before suit may be filed.Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine; AHCA Florida HealthFinder Facility Search
How long do I have to file a medical malpractice claim in Broward County?
Generally two years from when the incident was discovered, or should have been discovered with reasonable diligence, under section 95.11(4)(b) of the Florida Statutes.
A statute of repose generally bars claims more than four years after the incident, with limited exceptions. Presuit notice tolls the period in specific ways, so the deadline in any case should be calculated on its own facts, promptly.Sources: Florida Statutes §95.11, Online Sunshine; Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine
Which hospitals and health systems serve patients in Broward County?
Broward County has 15 acute-care hospitals. Most care is provided by Memorial Healthcare System (including Memorial Regional Hospital, Memorial Hospital West, Memorial Hospital Pembroke, and Memorial Hospital Miramar), Broward Health (including Broward Health Coral Springs and Broward Health North), and HCA Florida (including Westside Regional, University Hospital, the Woodmont campus, and Northwest Hospital), along with providers such as Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston.
Florida HealthFinder publishes facility information for each hospital.Sources: Florida Department of Health Licensing & Regulation; AHCA Florida HealthFinder Facility Search
Do I need a medical expert before a Broward County malpractice claim can proceed?
Yes. Florida’s presuit rules require that a claim be corroborated by a qualified medical expert — generally a provider in the same or a similar specialty who has reviewed the records and verified reasonable grounds to believe the standard of care was breached and caused injury.
Without that corroboration, presuit notice is defective and the claim cannot properly proceed.Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine; AHCA Florida HealthFinder Facility Search
Can a claim involve care from more than one Broward County facility?
Yes, and in Broward County it often does. A patient may be seen in one system’s emergency department, transferred to another system’s hospital, and followed by an independent practice.
Each prospective defendant must be identified, investigated, and given its own presuit notice, and the investigation follows the entire course of care across facilities rather than a single chart.Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine; AHCA Florida HealthFinder Facility Search
Are damages capped in a Broward County medical malpractice case?
Florida law does not impose a general cap on compensatory damages in medical malpractice cases, and earlier noneconomic-damages caps in wrongful-death malpractice cases were repealed for most cases.
An important Broward-specific exception involves the county’s public hospital districts — Memorial Healthcare System and Broward Health — because claims against governmental providers are subject to the sovereign-immunity limits and claim procedures of section 768.28. Which rules apply depends on who provided the care.Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine; Florida Statutes Chapter 768, Online Sunshine
How do I get my medical records from a Broward County hospital?
Request them from each provider that treated you — hospital medical-records departments and individual practices hold separate parts of the chart.
Ask for complete records, including imaging, nursing notes, and medication records, and keep copies of everything you receive. You do not need to assemble the full record before contacting a lawyer; obtaining complete records from every Broward system involved is part of the investigation.Sources: Florida Department of Health Licensing & Regulation; AHCA Florida HealthFinder Facility Search
What is the difference between a Department of Health complaint and a malpractice claim in Florida?
They are separate processes with different purposes. A complaint to the Florida Department of Health concerns professional licensure and discipline; it does not recover compensation for an injured patient.
A malpractice claim under chapter 766 seeks compensation through the presuit process and, if necessary, litigation. Filing one does not substitute for the other, and the malpractice deadlines keep running either way.Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine; Florida Department of Health Licensing & Regulation
How do I contact RDCY about a Broward County malpractice concern?
Call (561) 516-5168 or use the contact form on this site to request a free case review.
It is helpful to bring discharge paperwork, a list of the Broward facilities and providers involved, and your own notes about dates and what you were told — but do not delay the call to gather documents, because presuit investigation and expert review take time within short statutory deadlines.Sources: Florida Statutes Chapter 766, Online Sunshine; The Florida Bar — Public Information
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