In Franks, the estate of a patient filed a lawsuit against a physician and medical practice for alleged medical malpractice resulting in the patient’s death. The physician and medical malpractice moved to compel arbitration based on the financial agreement the patient signed prior to his surgery. The estate alleged that the financial agreement was void under the public policy enunciated in Florida’s medical malpractice law, as the agreement did not provide the same remedies as provided by the law.
The Florida Justice Reform Institute, in conjunction with the Florida Medical Association and the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association, filed an amicus curiae brief arguing that nothing in the law prohibits voluntary agreements outside the statutory framework to arbitrate disputes or to impose limits on damages. Unfortunately, the Florida Supreme Court disagreed, and held that the damages clause of the arbitration provision violates the public policy evinced in the medical malpractice law and could not be enforced because the agreement did not include the law’s “substantial incentives” for claimants to submit to arbitration.
FJRI represented by Cynthia S. Tunnicliff and Gerald Don Nelson Bryant IV of Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson, Bell, and Dunbar, P.A.