Medical Malpractice, Wrongful Death and Probate Law in Florida

When it comes to health, we don’t believe anyone as much as we believe the doctors or medical professionals. Often they too commit mistakes. Some small mistakes are common, but few mistakes may affect a person badly. The doctor may fail to diagnose the problem accurately, make improper diagnosis of a condition, commit errors during surgeries, prescribe wrong treatment etc.

These mistakes may be due to the negligence of the medical professional and often costs the life of a person or cause very serious complication in person like physical disability, mental disability, organ failure etc. This is known as medical malpractice. The victim of malpractice can claim the compensation for any loss faced. Florida medical malpractice attorney can help with the details. As per the law of Florida, the victim gets a time frame of two years to claim. To get the claim, the victim has to prove that it was the purely negligence of the doctor that caused harm to the patient.

When a person looses life due to the negligence of others, the death is termed as wrongful death. Wrongful death can be due to accidents, medical malpractice, use of harmful products etc. Wrongful death claim requires that the victim has a survivor recognized by the statute of Florida and also proof that the death was due to the negligence of others. The claim for this can be made within two years of the incident.

The wrongful death victim may or may not have made a will. For claiming for wrongful death one also needs to file a probate. It is the probate law that decides how the property of the deceased is distributed. The probate in Florida refers to passing the assets of the deceased person to the heirs after having made the payment to creditors. The right of inheritance of assets is given to the person who is declared as the personal representative as per the will of the deceased.

When there is no will, the Florida state law decides the personal representative. If the deceased has a surviving spouse, the spouse is declared as the personal representative. In case the spouse disagrees to serve as the personal representative, children or a close relative is appointed as the personal representative.

The distribution of assets when there is no will depends on whether the deceased has a surviving spouse, lineal heirs etc. If the deceased has only surviving spouse, all the assets are inherited by the spouse. If the deceased has spouse as well as heirs who are the children of descendent and the surviving spouse, the spouse gets first $60000 and half the property. The heirs inherit the remaining half of the property. When the descendent has a surviving spouse and heirs among whom one or more heirs are not children of the surviving spouse, half the assets are inherited by the spouse and remaining half goes to the heirs. If there are only heirs and no surviving spouse, then the assets are inherited by heirs.

The probate attorney and inheritance lawyers in Florida can assist with the procedures for inheritance of assets.