Informed Consent

Answer:

Florida has a unique statute that applies to informed consent. When we file medical malpractice cases, especially cases that involve surgery or procedures that require consent for that treatment, it’s very important to establish that, if there has not been fully informed consent by the patient in deciding to undergo that procedure, that is a separate claim of medical malpractice, and we file it as a separate claim within the same lawsuit.

What happens with this under Florida law is that the physician who is proposing that a patient undergo a procedure has to fully explain the material risks that could happen in that procedure and not just tell the patient what those potential risks are, but also tell them about what other alternatives that patient has other than the procedure that’s being proposed. The patient has a right to know what their options are. They have the right to make a knowing and voluntary decision about what medical treatment they choose to undergo, and if that informed consent is not properly provided to the patient, it’s another way that we can prove a medical malpractice claim.