Florida Statute 766.205 - Full Text and Legal Analysis

The 2025 Florida Statutes

Title XLV
TORTS

Chapter 766
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE AND RELATED MATTERS

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F.S. 766.205

766.205 Presuit discovery of medical negligence claims and defenses.—

(1) Upon the completion of presuit investigation pursuant to s. 766.203, which investigation has resulted in the mailing of a notice of intent to initiate litigation in accordance with s. 766.106, corroborated by medical expert opinion that there exist reasonable grounds for a claim of negligent injury, each party shall provide to the other party reasonable access to information within its possession or control in order to facilitate evaluation of the claim.

(2) Such access shall be provided without formal discovery, pursuant to s. 766.106, and failure to so provide shall be grounds for dismissal of any applicable claim or defense ultimately asserted.

(3) Failure of any party to comply with this section shall constitute evidence of failure of that party to comply with good faith discovery requirements and shall waive the requirement of written medical corroboration by the party seeking production.

(4) No statement, discussion, written document, report, or other work product generated solely by the presuit investigation process is discoverable or admissible in any civil action for any purpose by the opposing party. All participants, including, but not limited to, hospitals and other medical facilities, and the officers, directors, trustees, employees, and agents thereof, physicians, investigators, witnesses, and employees or associates of the defendant, are immune from civil liability arising from participation in the presuit investigation process. Such immunity from civil liability includes immunity for any acts by a medical facility in connection with providing medical records pursuant to s. 766.204(1) regardless of whether the medical facility is or is not a defendant.

History.—s. 52, ch. 88-1; s. 28, ch. 88-277; s. 34, ch. 91-110.

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Amendments to 766.205

Annotations, Discussions, Cases:

Cases Citing Statute 766.205

Total Results: 26

Kozel v. Ostendorf

629 So. 2d 817, 1993 WL 433791

Supreme Court of Florida | Filed: Jan 13, 1994 | Docket: 1264556

Cited 234 times | Published

action and that Kozel failed to comply with section 766.205, Florida Statutes (1989). The court granted

Kukral v. Mekras

679 So. 2d 278, 1996 WL 316134

Supreme Court of Florida | Filed: Jun 13, 1996 | Docket: 1665987

Cited 64 times | Published

order to facilitate evaluation of the claim." § 766.205(1), Fla.Stat. (1995). The unreasonable failure

Stebilla v. Mussallem

595 So. 2d 136, 1992 WL 24470

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Feb 14, 1992 | Docket: 1299226

Cited 27 times | Published

section 52(2), Chapter 88-1, now codified as section 766.205(2), Florida Statutes (1991). Moreover, the

Ragoonanan v. Assocs. in Obstetrics & Gynecology

619 So. 2d 482, 1993 WL 196317

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jun 11, 1993 | Docket: 1381989

Cited 18 times | Published

faith with presuit discovery, as required by section 766.205, Florida Statutes. Failure to comply with presuit

Largie v. Gregorian

913 So. 2d 635, 2005 WL 1631086

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jul 13, 2005 | Docket: 1698277

Cited 11 times | Published

initiate medical negligence litigation." And § 766.205(1) specifically provides that the medical opinion

Cohen v. Dauphinee

739 So. 2d 68, 1999 WL 236248

Supreme Court of Florida | Filed: Apr 15, 1999 | Docket: 1293999

Cited 11 times | Published

we disapprove that decision and hold that section 766.205(4) protects the corroborative affidavit from

Tuyuana L. Morris, etc. v. Orlando S. Muniz, M.D.

252 So. 3d 1143

Supreme Court of Florida | Filed: Sep 6, 2018 | Docket: 7813516

Cited 8 times | Published

medical malpractice claims in violation of section 766.205, Florida Statutes (2011). Significantly, in

Davis v. ORLANDO REGIONAL MEDICAL CTR.

654 So. 2d 664, 1995 WL 275749

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: May 12, 1995 | Docket: 1303652

Cited 8 times | Published

initiate medical negligence litigation." And § 766.205(1) specifically provides that the medical opinion

Michael v. Medical Staffing Network, Inc.

947 So. 2d 614, 2007 WL 57604

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jan 10, 2007 | Docket: 2490352

Cited 6 times | Published

Fla. Stat. (2004)(emphasis added). Further, section 766.205(1) refers to the requirement of an investigation

Williams v. Powers

619 So. 2d 980, 1993 WL 125164

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Apr 23, 1993 | Docket: 1721844

Cited 6 times | Published

and attorney-client privilege and citing to section 766.205(4).[1] This new statute appears to abound with

Otto v. Rodriguez

710 So. 2d 1, 1998 WL 39351

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Feb 4, 1998 | Docket: 1444446

Cited 5 times | Published

obtaining a medical affidavit as required under section 766.205, Florida Statutes, did not constitute a waiver

Scalice v. Orlando Regional Healthcare

120 So. 3d 215, 2013 WL 4483070, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 13448

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Aug 23, 2013 | Docket: 60233957

Cited 3 times | Published

whether the trial court properly interpreted section 766.205(4), Florida Statutes (2010), concerning admissibility

COLUMBIA/JFK MEDICAL CENTER LIMITED PARTNERSHIP v. Brown

805 So. 2d 28, 2001 WL 1418624

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Nov 14, 2001 | Docket: 1669581

Cited 3 times | Published

instance of medical negligence. § 766.203; see also § 766.205(1). In many cases it would be virtually impossible

Watkins v. Rosenthal

637 So. 2d 993, 1994 WL 243872

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jun 7, 1994 | Docket: 1521582

Cited 3 times | Published

investigation process. § 766.203, Fla. Stat. (1993). Section 766.205(4), Florida Statutes (1993), provides: "No

Wilkinson v. Golden

630 So. 2d 1238, 1994 WL 22576

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jan 28, 1994 | Docket: 481361

Cited 3 times | Published

required to cooperate in "informal" discovery. § 766.205. The claimant is allowed to file a lawsuit only

Whealton v. Marshall

631 So. 2d 323, 1994 WL 19083

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jan 26, 1994 | Docket: 1464357

Cited 3 times | Published

discovery under the presuit investigation statute, section 766.205(4), Florida Statutes, as well as the work product

Bery v. Fahel

88 So. 3d 236, 2011 WL 4949904, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 16368

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Oct 19, 2011 | Docket: 60308204

Cited 2 times | Published

objected on the basis of privilege, citing to section 766.205(4), which provides: “No statement, discussion

Paulk v. National Medical Enterprises

679 So. 2d 1289, 1996 WL 539833

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Sep 25, 1996 | Docket: 1187865

Cited 2 times | Published

are grounds for a "claim of negligent injury," § 766.205(1) (emphasis added), as do provisions allowing

Vincent v. Kaufman

855 So. 2d 1153, 2003 WL 22136093

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Sep 17, 2003 | Docket: 2362323

Cited 1 times | Published

grounds that dismissal was mandatory under section 766.205, Florida Statutes, if there was a failure to

Kellie Erlacher and Ryan Erlacher v. Florida Woman Care, LLC, Unified Physician Management, LLC, OBGYN Associates of St. Augustine, P.A., Eric Pulsfus, Kelly Jago, and Flagler Hospital, Inc.

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jul 18, 2025 | Docket: 70834649

Published

opposition to the motion was inadmissible under section 766.205(4), Florida Statutes (2024). That section provides

Tuyuana L. Morris, as Personal etc. v. Orlando S. Muniz, M.D., Marianna etc.

189 So. 3d 348, 2016 WL 1660554, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 6298

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Apr 27, 2016 | Docket: 3058396

Published

during pre-suit investigation pursuant to section 766.205(2), Florida Statutes (2011), and that, based

Variety Children's Hospital v. Boice

27 So. 3d 788, 2010 Fla. App. LEXIS 1571, 2010 WL 532839

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Feb 17, 2010 | Docket: 2409262

Published

Because of the clear and unambiguous language of section 766.205(4), which provides that "[n]o statement, discussion

Kanaan v. Osborne

950 So. 2d 1291, 2007 Fla. App. LEXIS 4560, 2007 WL 914680

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Mar 28, 2007 | Docket: 64849668

Published

claims are exempt from discovery pursuant to section 766.205(4), Florida Statutes (2005).1 The respondent

Torrey v. Leesburg Regional Medical Center

796 So. 2d 544, 2001 WL 201965

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Mar 2, 2001 | Docket: 1672399

Published

applicable claim or defense ultimately asserted." Section 766.205(2), Florida Statutes (emphasis added). "The

Ago

Florida Attorney General Reports | Filed: Jul 9, 1999 | Docket: 3258333

Published

trial. The Court, construing the terms of section 766.205(4), Florida Statutes, determined that this

Karr v. Sellers

668 So. 2d 629, 1996 Fla. App. LEXIS 240, 1996 WL 14053

District Court of Appeal of Florida | Filed: Jan 17, 1996 | Docket: 64762620

Published

2d 1268 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995). Similarly, in section 766.205(2), which *631is not applicable here either