Adult children and parents of young adults who died under medical care will soon be able to recover punitive and pain-and-suffer
ing damag
es in medical malpractice lawsuits if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a bill into law.
The Florida Senate approved House Bill 6017, a month after the House of
Representatives endorsed it. The measure would end the so-called “free kill” law that since 1990 has barred
children aged 25 or older, or parents of deceased individuals who were 25 and up, from recovering non-economic damages under the state’s wrongful death statute.
The Senate vote was 33-4 in favor of the repeal, bucking a legislative tre
nd toward reducing what the business and insurance communities have called excessive litigation in the state. Despite that tre
nd, some Republicans who had voted for Florida’s 2023 tort reform law argued that the “free kill” law had gone too far.
“This is a 35-year-old law that needs to be repealed,” state Sen. Clay
Yarborough, R-Jacksonville, sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “It’s unjust. It shouldn’t be on the books.”
Senators rejected an attempt to limit damages in the lawsuits to $1 million.
Sen. Gayle Harrell said repeal of the law, without the cap on damages, would cause “a major problem for the state of Florida,” by ke
eping malpractice insurance rates at very high levels and discouraging doctors from moving to the state.
Sen. Jason Pizzo, a former Democrat, argued that Florida will see relativ
Watch More Image Part 2 >>>
ely few new lawsuits if the law is repealed, and it would have little impact on medical malpractice premiums.
“There isn’t a special category or line of insurance on the med-mal si
de that covers doctors who specialize in making sure that they operate on or treat people who have only adult children who c
an’t recover under Florida Statute 768,” Pizzo said on the floor. “That doesn’t exist.”
DeSantis has not indicated if he will sign or veto the bill, according to state news reports.