The Impact of Eliminating Damage Caps on Nursing Home Litigation

LawFuel had an interesting article about arbitrary caps on damages in cases involving vulnerable adults.  Florida’s legal landscape for nursing home litigation has shifted significantly following the elimination of statutory caps on non-economic damages. In its 2017 decision in North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that these caps violated the state constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, leaving compensatory damages such as pain and suffering uncapped in negligence and wrongful-death claims.

Today, nursing home cases are pursued under general negligence and wrongful-death statutes, which do not impose limits on compensatory recovery. However, punitive damages remain capped under Florida law at $500,000 or three times compensatory damages, unless intentional misconduct is shown, in
which case awards may exceed those limits.

More recently, the Florida Legislature repealed the so-called “Free Kill Law” through H.B. 6017, expanding the ability of certain family members to
recover damages in wrongful-death medical malpractice cases. Together, these developments open the door to higher potential recoveries in nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits, particularly against facilities that already face heightened scrutiny due to poor quality ratings and federal oversight concerns.