Articles

Ratzan Law Group is pleased and proud to support Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. in its valiant effort to provide much needed legal services to the poor in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties.

Ratzan Law Group is a sponsor of the Florida Bar’s Judicial Luncheon to be held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club during the Bar’s 2013 Annual Convention from June 26-29, 2013. Visit the 2013 Convention Website for additional details.

“I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent,” Horton the Elephant said…

Stuart N. Ratzan was once again recognized in the 2012 edition of Florida Super Lawyers Magazine. He was named a “Florida Super Lawyer” in the category for Personal Injury Plaintiff: Medical Malpractice. Super Lawyers names Florida’s top lawyers as chosen by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics. Law & Politics performs the polling, research and selection of Super Lawyers in a process designed to identify lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. It is a comprehensive and diverse guide to outstanding attorneys, representing a wide range of practice areas, firm sizes and geographic locations. Five percent of the lawyers in Florida are named Super Lawyers. For more information on this award please visit http://www.superlawyers.com/

Florida Jury Awards $30 Million to Smoker With Lung Cancer in Engle-Progeny Case

Legal team helped longtime smoker win $27 million award

Plaintiff Emmon Smith Was Awarded $10 Million Verdict in Compensatory Damages and $20 Million in Punitive Damages in Trial Against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Read in Spanish.

Jury Awards $27 Million to Retired Pastor in Smoker Case.

Florida Jury Awards Total of $27 Million In Compensatory And Punitive Damages From Tobacco Company to Man Alleging Lung Cancer Was Caused by Smoking Cigarettes.

Florida Supreme Court Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis, and Peggy Quince are the targets of a movement to get them removed, apparently for striking a ballot initiative that would have destroyed President Obama’s healthcare plan.

Medmal Damage Caps Only Hurt Real Suits, Not Frivolous Ones – February 24, 2012: The Florida Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in the medical malpractice case McCall v. U.S. Michelle McCall died after childbirth at a military hospital. Her family filed the suit in federal court under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The judge found that the death was a result of medical malpractice and awarded damages to her husband and child. Because the Florida Legislature passed a law in 2003 capping damages in medical malpractice cases, the judge was forced to reduce the damage award by $1 million.

On October 27, 2011 Stuart Ratzan attended the Florida Justice Association’s Medical Malpractice Seminar titled, “Masters of Medical Malpractice Roundtable: Confronting New Laws and Hot Issues” where he presented on the subject of “Preparing for and Taking the Defendants’ Expert Witness Depositions.”

Stuart Ratzan discusses Post Trial Motions and the Impact of Social Networks on Juries. Click here to listen to the full presentation. Buy: Purchase AAJ Education programs on CD/DVD http://www.playbackaaj.com/ Join: Join the American Association for Justice https://www.join-aaj.org/

Stuart Ratzan discussed his pending case on behalf of a burn victim to the Florida Times Union.

Stuart Ratzan talked with the Daily Business Review about the ramifications of a Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal ruling on pending tobacco litigation.

Ratzan Law Group attorney Stuart N. Ratzan today filed a law suit against Coomes Oil and Supply, Inc. on behalf of David Cowles, who suffered devastating third degree burns and other injuries following an explosion and fire at a BP Gas Station in St. Augustine on Aug. 19.

Stuart N. Ratzan argues that the Florida Legislature has created an unequal system of justice for medical malpractice victims, and has eliminated justice for the most disadvantaged victims, those receiving Medicaid benefits.

Stuart N. Ratzan is named one of Florida’s Legal Elite.

With the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation widely expected to consolidate the hundreds of cases stemming from BP PLC’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the buzz is building about where the litigation might be centralized — and whether the panel will settle for one of the two leading venues that the litigants proposed.

While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is considering whether to suspend players for seeking cures from the syringe-wielding physician Anthony Galea, he should ask why so many of them distrust their team physicians and seek alternative ways to heal. Medical care in the league is not a simple issue. Anyone who says otherwise should read up on O.J. McDuffle’s case.

Stuart Ratzan’s article published in the Sun-Sentinel, “Tort Reform will stick consumers with tab” explains how injured victims of medical malpractice, and the Medicare and Medicaid systems will be left to pay the bill.

Stuart Ratzan was a panelist at the Daily Business Review Medical Malpractice & Hospital Operations Roundtable 2008, where he shared his insights on medical malpractice issues.

In a February, 2008 issue of Florida Medical Business, the FDA issued a warning to physicians about broken medical device fragments left in patients, indicating that they could strengthen patients’ malpractice claims if a fragment causes harm. Attorney Stuart Ratzan contributes expert commentary.

A Hollywood housewife who lost both legs after complications from a 2000 liposuction is featured on HBO’s Plastic Disasters, an hour long documentary on plastic surgery patients.

In the latest of its medical malpractice woes, the University of Miami has settled two catastrophic malpractice cases, including a lawsuit brought by a man who woke up paralyzed after a surgical procedure.

Next month the University of Miami faces another malpractice trial involving a privately insured patient who became a quadriplegic after undergoing surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Miami plaintiff attorney Stuart Ratzan, who is scheduled to go to trial next month in a malpractice case against the University of Miami and a faculty anesthesiologist sent the Herald a proposed op-ed column. The column pointed out the editorial’s error and problems with a bill designed to bar medical malpractice lawsuits against the university’s medical school, its faculty and staff, and other medical educators operating at public and private teaching hospitals in Florida.

Stuart N. Ratzan, a Miami lawyer who is handling a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery, said he obtained a copy of a letter alleging that unlicensed assistants performed surgery. He has begun investigating the accusations to see whether they apply to his case.

A Hollywood housewife lost both legs after complications from a 2000 liposuction.

A Hollywood housewife lost both legs after complications from a 2000 liposuction.

In Florida, a state that has been touted as a national example for its regulations on plastic surgery, the statistics clearly illustrate how risky these procedures can be. “I don’t think there is another place in the country whereas much surgery is going on – or whereas many mistakes are being made and lawsuits are being filed,” said Stuart Ratzan, a Miami attorney who focuses his practice on medical malpractice cases.

Florida Resident Miriam Kamin claims Baptist Hospital of Miami had the responsibility to refer her to another hospital that performs pancreatic surgeries more frequently. “It’s common sense that a facility that does something often may be better able to handle a case,” said Stuart Ratzan, who is representing the Kamins.

Stuart Ratzan, a partner in Miami litigation boutique Ratzan & Alters, filed suit in Broward Circuit Court alleging that a woman’s suffering was a result of medical malpractice by a Fort Lauderdale clinic and its employees.

Commentary by Stuart Ratzan of the Miami personal injury law firm Ratzan Law Group, on the medical malpractice debate in Florida politics.

Careless words in a medical malpractice deposition came back to haunt a Florida hospital when a judge reacted with an extremely rare decision to allow punitive damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The family’s attorneys, Stuart N. Ratzan and associate Rachel Alters, claim that the care was so poor that both the hospital and the treating doctors should be held liable for punitive damages as well as compensatory and pain and suffering damages.