Florida Statute Authorizing Ex Parte Interviews With Treating Physicians Stricken

Tiffany A. Roddenberry is an Associate in our Tallahasse office.

Jerome W. Hoffman is a Partner in our Jacksonville office.

In Weaver v. Myers, 229 So. 3d 1118 (Fla. 2017), the court, in a 4-3 decision, ruled that 2013 statutory amendments authorizing the conduct of informal, ex parte interviews with a medical malpractice claimant's treating physician unconstitutionally infringe rights of privacy and access to courts. The Florida Supreme Court first made clear that Weaver's late husband's privacy right survived his death and could be raised by his wife in these proceedings, then ruled that the amendments unconstitutionally require claimants to waive their right to privacy as to both relevant and irrelevant medical information. The court considered the legislature's reasons for the amendments; i.e., to encourage settlement by providing equal access to relevant information, to screen out frivolous claims and to streamline medical malpractice litigation not "sufficiently compelling" to outweigh patient privacy rights. Even if the rights were compelling, the court determined that authorizing "clandestine, ex parte secret interviews is far from the least intrusive means to accomplish those stated goals." The court also held that the amendments violated the...