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Amendment 3

In 2002, the Florida Medical Association backed a constitutional amendment purporting to limit the amount of money a lawyer can charge in a medical malpractice case (the Amendment only limits the injured patient’s lawyer – doctors’ and insurance companies’ lawyers are free to charge whatever they want). The Amendment sought to limit a lawyer’s fees to a level that would make it impossible to properly pursue medical malpractice cases and would make it much more difficult for malpractice victims to seek accountability from negligent or incompetent doctors.

While the Amendment passed, the Florida Supreme Court approved waiver procedures that would allow injured victims to hire the attorney of their choice. Still, it shows the efforts of big insurance and medical interests to throw yet another impediment in front of our citizens in seeking justice, and another attempt to avoid accountability for negligent and reckless conduct.