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Florida Medical Liability Compensation, Amendment 3 (2004)
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Florida Medical Liability Compensation Amendment, also known as Amendment 3, was an initiated constitutional amendment on the November 2, 2004 election ballot in Florida, where it was approved.
- The amendment added Article I, Section 26 of the Florida Constitution to set limits on how much lawyers can earn from medical liability claim settlements.[1]
Election results
| Florida Amendment 3 (2004) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Yes | 4,583,164 | 63.58% | ||
| No | 2,622,143 | 36.38% | ||
Results via: the Florida Department of State, Division of Elections
Text of measure
The ballot title read:
| “ | The Medical Liability Claimant's Compensation Amendment[1] | ” |
The ballot summary read:
| “ | Proposes to amend the State Constitution to provide that an injured claimant who enters into a contingency fee agreement with an attorney in a claim for medical liability is entitled to no less than 70% of the first $250,000.00 in all damages received by the claimant, and 90% of damages in excess of $250,000.00, exclusive of reasonable and customary costs and regardless of the number of defendants. This amendment is intended to be self-executing.[1] | ” |
The fiscal note was as follows:
| “ | The direct financial impact this amendment will have on state and local government revenues and expenditures cannot be determined.[2] | ” |
Constitutional changes
The text of the amendment read:
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Section 1. |
Campaign contributions
The group opposing Amendment 3 outspent the group supporting Amendment 3 by a factor of about 3-to-1 with $8,234,777 coming from the "yes" side and $24,669,700 coming from the "no" side.
Supporters
Amendment 3 major donors were:
- Florida Medical Association, $$2,155,961
- Citizens for Tort Reform, $439,630
- Tenet Healthcare, $105,000
- Baptist Health South Florida, $100,000
- Florida Cardiology, $100,000
- American Medical Association, $100,000[3]
Opponents
Amendment 3 was opposed by a group called Floridians for Patient Protection. Its major donors were:
- Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley: $1,051,450
- Brown, Terrell, Hogan, Ellis, McClamma & Yegelwel, $947,280
- Grossman & Roth, $700,000
- Coker, Myers, Schickel, Sorenson & Green, $665,000
- Pajcic & Pajcic, $635,000
- Maher, Guiley Maher, $625,000
- Krupnick Campbell Malone et al, $550,000
- Ferraro and Associates, $520,000
- Harrell & Johnson, $420,000
- CFS Inc. $370,000
- Levin Papantonio $325,000
- Bbbitt Johnson Osborne, $310,000
- Leesfield, Leighton, Rubio, Mahfood & Boyers, $300,000
- Haggard Parks Haggard & Bologna, $297,600
- Rossman Baumberger Reboso & Spier, $290,000
- Cohen Jayson & Foster, $280,000
- Lyal Reiter Clark Fountain & Williams, $275,000
- Podhurst Orseck $275,000
- Donald Hinkle, $270,000
- Leopold Ricci, $260,000[4]
Path to the ballot
- Amendment 3 was sponsored by Citizens for a Fair Share. Sandra B. Mortham was the group's chairperson.[1]
- The initiative petition required 488,722 signatures and 499,148 were found valid.[1]
See also
External links
References
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