Jennifer Van Bergen, aka Gwendolyn Stone v. Scott Koppel
DueProcess Privacy JusticiabilityDoctri
Does the Florida Medical Malpractice Act's presuit medical expert affidavit requirement violate the 14th Amendment equal protection clause and the 5th and 14th Amendment due process clauses
QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Does the Florida Medical Malpractice Act’s presuit medical expert affidavit requirement violate the 14th Amendment equal protection clause and the 5th and 14th : Amendment due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution for an indigent pro se litigant where she can show a reasonable belief and make a prima facie case that negligence occurred on common knowledge, without medical expert opinion or with medical testimony from other treating doctors? 2. Does the Florida medical expert affidavit requirement conflict with court rules regarding the procedures for filing lawsuits and therefore violate the separation of powers? 3. Does the finding that the “so-called [medical insurance] ‘crisis’ is nothing more than the underwriting cycle of the insurance industry, and driven by the same factors that caused the ‘crises’ in the 1970s and 1980s,” Estate of McCall v. U.S., 134 So.3d 894, 907 (Fla. 2014)(citing 2000 Florida Legislative Task Force findings), eviscerate the legislative basis for the medical expert affidavit requirement, enacted in 1988 in ; response to the alleged medical malpractice crisis then, and suggest similar disconnects ; for medical malpractice expert affidavit requirements in other states, warranting this Court’s intervention and guidance?