Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers recently enacted significant tort reforms designed to restrict plaintiffs pursuing negligence claims – but which could give an unexpected boost to those pursuing costly employment litigation against their employers. While the tort reform legislation, signed into effect on March 24, provides good news for employers by addressing key issues such as physician referrals, statutes of limitation, and the introduction of evidence related to medical treatment costs, it may end up pushing aggrieved individuals into filing employment-related statutory lawsuits rather than the now more perilous path they can expect with negligence claims. What are the five biggest takeaways for Florida employers?
1. The Admissibility of Medical Evidence Will Be Restricted
The new law restricts new types of admissible evidence in establishing past, present, and future medical expenses. Damages sought for medical expenses can no longer exceed amounts that are actually paid, necessary to satisfy charges not yet satisfied, and reasonable and necessary to satisfy the cost of care in the future. The law also permits evidence of the amount paid to healthcare providers by private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid for medical treatment.
This is good news for employers facing negligent infliction of emotional distress claims or other types of workplace-related tort claims. They can now rely on this change to preclude inflated medical bills from being presented...
In a Nutshell A warm, conversational AI style made people trust an assistant more, even when it was spreading false health information. Simply showing users a “verify this” option did almost noth...