The thousands of legal actions filed in March by trial attorneys trying to avoid the consequences imposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis' tort reform package may have been in vain if a state judge’s ruling is upheld on appeal.
Hillsborough Circuit Court Judge Ann Leigh Gaylor Moe ruled in a 40-page opinion last month that the new statute applies retroactively to lawsuits filed before HB 837’s effective date because the changes it made were procedural.
“If the statute is substantive and there is a clear expression from the Legislature that retroactive application was intended, then the court will examine whether the Florida Constitution prohibits retroactive application,” wrote Moe in her May 19 decision. “If the statute is not substantive, and instead is either procedural remedial (or a combination of both), then the constitutional reasons for caution in applying the new law to pending cases does not apply.”
Among other things, HB 837 tightened standards for determining medical expenses in certain civil actions.
At issue is whether the manner in which a plaintiff proves medical expenses in their case will be under the new law imposed by HB 837 or the prior statute.
“Most medical payments are billed out to the plaintiffs but under this ruling, you're only allowed to present to the jury the insurance company or Medicaid rate under the formula and that's going to change everything because now what the plaintiffs are demanding is going to be impacted, which means the verdict will be impacted, which means, if it doesn't go to a verdict, the settlement will be impacted,” said Emanuel Galimidi, a personal injury attorney with Galimidi Law in Miami.
Section 30 of HB 837, which became law on March 24, states that the changes should apply to causes of action filed after the act’s effective date, not before.
As previously reported in the Florida Record, the personal injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan alone filed 25,000 complaints prior to the effective date of Gov. DeSantis' overhaul of tort reform as a way to protect the plaintiff’s interest under the outgoing law.
“I would say changes to the law are substantive but clearly this judge in Hillsboro County is taking the position that at least as insofar as Section 30 of that law when it is applied to medical payments, it’s procedural,” Galimidi said in an interview.
The underlying lawsuit was filed by a Morgan and Morgan attorney on behalf of plaintiffs Sharon Sapp and Stacy Chaney regarding evidence of past and future medical treatment or services expenses.
“It was set to go to trial right around the time the statute was being enacted so by all measure it would fall within the ambit of the old law because it was filed in 2021,” Galimidi told the Florida Record.
Matt Morgan, Morgan & Morgan's managing attorney, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.