Miami nursing home negligence lawyer

Which Florida laws apply to a Miami nursing home negligence claim

The rules are the same across Florida, so they are written out in full on one page rather than repeated here. They are explained on the statewide nursing home negligence page, with the statute text linked.

A nursing home claim is not a medical malpractice claim. It runs on the residents’ rights in Fla. Stat. § 400.022 and the civil action in § 400.023, with its own presuit procedure and its own deadline.

That deadline is unusual and worth knowing precisely. Under § 400.0236 the action must be brought within 2 years of the incident or of when it was, or should have been, discovered with due diligence — and in no event later than 4 years from the incident. Where fraudulent concealment or misrepresentation prevented discovery, it extends to 2 years from discovery, capped at 6 years.

And if it was an assisted living facility rather than a nursing home, chapter 429 governs instead. The protections are parallel but not identical, which makes the license type the first thing to establish.

What follows is the part that is specific to Miami-Dade County — where these claims arise, where you will be treated, which courthouse the case goes to, and how the records are obtained.

Nursing home or assisted living? It decides which law applies

This is the first question, and it is answered from a public record rather than from what the building is called.

A nursing home is licensed under part II of chapter 400. The residents’ rights are in § 400.022 and the civil action for violating them is § 400.023.

An assisted living facility is licensed under chapter 429, with its own parallel scheme. Names do not track the licenses — places calling themselves a retirement residence, a memory care community or a rehabilitation center may hold either license, or more than one.

It also is not automatically a malpractice case. Chapter 400 claims are about the care and the rights owed to a resident. Where a physician’s medical judgment is the issue, chapter 766 and its presuit expert requirements can apply instead, and the characterization changes the deadline, the procedure and sometimes who can be sued.

So look up the license before anything else. AHCA’s facility search returns the license type, the operator and the location, and that single fact sets the track the case runs on.

What AHCA already publishes about a Miami facility

Florida publishes a great deal about licensed facilities, and most families never look.

Every licensed facility has a profile on the state’s health care quality site, reachable by name or by proximity to an address. The profile carries facility information, services, an emergency power plan summary, AHCA reports, and — most usefully — Legal Actions, listing the case number, the violation, the fine amount and the dates.

Statements of deficiency and final orders are separately searchable through AHCA’s document search. A deficiency cited months before an injury, on the same subject as the injury, is close to the most persuasive document a case of this kind can have.

And the nursing home comparison tool publishes ratings and measures, which is a reasonable place to start when a family is choosing rather than litigating.

Pull the record for the specific facility, not the chain. Operators run many buildings under similar names, and performance varies building to building. The profile is per license, which is the level that matters.

The arbitration clause, and who actually signed it

Admission is a stack of paperwork signed at the worst possible moment, and buried in it is frequently a clause that decides whether there is ever a jury.

An arbitration agreement is not automatically enforceable. Whether it binds depends on what the document says, who signed it, and whether that person had authority to sign it on the resident’s behalf.

That last point is where these are won and lost. An adult child who signed under a power of attorney may or may not have had authority to waive the resident’s right to a jury. A person who signed only as a responsible party for payment may have bound nobody to arbitration at all. And a resident who signed while already cognitively impaired raises the question of whether there was capacity to agree.

So obtain the complete admission packet — every page, both sides, including anything signed later — and the power of attorney or guardianship papers that were in effect. Facilities keep these, and families usually received a copy they never read.

Do not assume it is fatal and do not assume it is void. It is a document to read carefully and early, because it shapes everything about how the claim proceeds.

The records that answer these cases, and how quickly to ask

Almost everything that decides a nursing home case is written down, and almost all of it is held by the facility.

The complete chart: nursing notes, the care plan and its revisions, wound care records and measurements, turning and repositioning logs, medication administration records, weights, intake and output, incident reports and fall assessments.

The things people forget to ask for: staffing schedules and daily census for the relevant period, which is where short staffing shows up; the facility’s own investigation of the incident; and communications with the family about a change in condition.

Photographs. If there is a wound, photograph it with a date and something for scale, and keep photographing it. Wounds change and the record of how they changed is often disputed.

And write down the timeline while it is fresh — who said what, when, and what you observed on which visit. Families routinely have information no record contains.

Where the Miami office is, and how to get there

DAPENALAW is at 5975 Sunset Drive, Suite 102, South Miami, FL 33143, open Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:00. The direct number is (305) 662-4323.

The office is on Sunset Drive in South Miami, a few blocks west of US-1 and close to the South Miami Metrorail station, with parking on site. A first conversation can happen by phone or video, and home and facility visits are available when a family cannot travel.

You do not have to come in. The first conversation can be by phone or video, documents are handled electronically, and where an injury makes travel difficult the meeting happens where you are. The Sunset Drive office serves Miami-Dade generally, and most often South Miami, Coral Gables, Westchester, Kendall, Coral Terrace, Olympia Heights, West Miami, Sweetwater, Glenvar Heights, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, Hialeah and Doral.

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