FLORIDA PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE LIABILITY
Under Florida’s common law, a person who is injured by another’s negligence may maintain an action against the other person based on that other person’s violation of a duty of due care to the injured person. Further, where the negligent party is a professional, the law imposes a duty to perform the requested services in accordance with the standard of care used by similar professionals in the community under similar circumstances. Generally, individuals performing engineering, architectural, legal, or medical services are performing professional services, and the law imposes upon such persons the duty to exercise a reasonable degree of skill and care, as determined by the degree of skill and care ordinarily employed by their respective professions under similar conditions and like surrounding circumstances.
Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care. Reasonable care on the part of the professional is that degree of care which a reasonably careful professional would use under like circumstances. Negligence may consist in doing something that a reasonably careful professional would not do under the like circumstances or in failing to do something that a reasonably careful professional would do under like circumstances.
The duty of a professional who renders services is different from the duty of one who renders manual services or delivers a product. The contractual duty of one who delivers a product or manual services, is to conform to the quality or quantity specified in the express contract, if any, or in the absence of such specification, or when the duty and level of performance is implied by law, to deliver a product reasonably suited for the purposes for which the product was intended . . . or to deliver services performed in a good and workmanlike manner. However, the duty imposed by law upon professionals rendering professional services is to perform such services in accordance with the standard of care used by similar professionals in the community under similar circumstances.
Our lawyers have represented numerous professionals who have been sued for professional negligence, including doctors, lawyers, and financial professionals, as well as individuals and businesses who have suffered losses as the result of the negligence of professionals such as engineers, architects, and financial professionals.
