This calculator is powered by the largest compiled Florida medical malpractice settlement dataset ever published by a law firm, which is 52,932 real closed claims filed with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s Professional Liability Closed Claims Reporting system, commonly known as the PLCR database.
Unlike generic settlement calculators that rely on national averages or small samples, every figure in this calculator reflects actual Florida cases, with real injuries, real defendants, and real settlements, reported directly to Florida’s insurance regulator by insurers and self-insured healthcare providers.
WHERE THE DATA COMES FROM
Under Florida Statute ยง627.912, every insurer and self-insured entity that closes a medical malpractice claim in Florida is required by law to report that claim to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. That reporting includes the nature of the injury, the severity, the healthcare provider involved, the legal stage at which the case resolved, and the amount paid, if any.
The PLCR database is publicly accessible through the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s website at floir.com. We compiled 52,932 records spanning from 1994 through 2026, which is thirty years of Florida malpractice history, representing the most comprehensive analysis of this dataset ever conducted by a Florida law firm.
WHAT IS A CLOSED CLAIM?
In Florida, a closed claim is a medical malpractice lawsuit or written demand against a healthcare provider that has reached a final resolution. Meaning, it has been settled, dismissed, or decided by a court judgment. Under Florida Statute 627.912, every insurer and self-insured healthcare entity is required by law to report closed claims to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, including the nature of the injury, the severity, the amount paid to the claimant, and the stage at which the case resolved.
This mandatory reporting requirement is what makes the Florida closed claims database reliable. Unlike voluntary surveys or self-reported data, every insurer operating in Florida must report every closed malpractice claim, which means the database captures the full picture of Florida malpractice resolutions, not just a sample.
WHY WE ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION
A settlement of $200,000 in 2005 is not worth the same as a settlement of $200,000 in 2026. The purchasing power of the dollar has declined significantly over thirty years, meaning that raw historical averages dramatically understate what comparable cases are worth today.
To address this we adjusted every historical settlement value to 2026 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Medical Care Services Consumer Price Index, which is CPI Series CUUR0000SAM. This is the same inflation measure used by healthcare economists and actuaries because it tracks medical cost inflation specifically, which is more relevant to malpractice settlements than general consumer price inflation.
The result is that when the calculator shows you an average or a range, every number represents what that settlement would be worth in today’s dollars, not the year it was paid.
For transparency, here is how the adjustment works in practice. A $200,000 settlement paid in 2005 carries a medical CPI multiplier of 2.089, making it equivalent to $418,000 in 2026 dollars. A $500,000 settlement paid in 2015 carries a multiplier of 1.543, making it equivalent to $771,500 in 2026 dollars. All 52,932 claims in the dataset have been adjusted using their corresponding year’s multiplier before being included in any average or percentile calculation.
THE IMPACT OF FLORIDA’S DAMAGES CAP REMOVAL
Florida’s medical malpractice landscape changed fundamentally in 2023 when the Florida Supreme Court issued its decision in North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan, effectively removing the statutory cap on non-economic damages in malpractice cases. Non-economic damages include compensation for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and other intangible harms.
Before this ruling, Florida law capped non-economic damages at $500,000 per claimant against individual practitioners and $750,000 against non-practitioner defendants in most cases. These caps artificially suppressed settlement values for decades, particularly in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases where non-economic damages represent a substantial portion of total compensation.
Our data reflects this shift clearly. Claims filed and settled after 2023 are no longer subject to these caps, and the calculator separately reports post-cap averages for each injury category so you can see both the full historical adjusted picture and what cases are settling for right now in the uncapped environment.
If your injury occurred after 2023 or if your case has not yet settled, the removal of the cap may significantly increase the value of your claim compared to what similar cases settled for in prior years.
WHAT THE DATA DOES NOT INCLUDE
In the interest of full transparency, there are limitations to this dataset that you should understand.
The PLCR database reports closed claims only, meaning cases that have been fully resolved. Cases that are still pending or in active litigation are not included. This means the most recent high-value settlements from the post-cap era are still working their way through the system and are not yet fully reflected in the data.
The database also does not capture claims that were resolved without any insurer involvement, or claims handled entirely through self-insurance arrangements that fall below reporting thresholds. Some very large verdicts that were appealed and ultimately reduced may be reported at the reduced amount.
Finally, the PLCR database is a statewide Florida dataset. It does not separate results by county or geographic region within Florida, though our analysis found no statistically significant regional variation in settlement values after controlling for injury type and severity.
HOW THE CALCULATOR USES THIS DATA
When you complete the three-step calculator, it looks up your combination of injury type and severity in a data table containing statistics for every meaningful combination in the dataset. The calculator then applies a provider type multiplier, as hospital defendants settle for more on average than individual practitioners, and displays the 25th to 75th percentile range, meaning the range within which half of all comparable cases settled.
The calculator also separately reports the post-2023 average for your injury and severity category so you can see how the cap removal has affected cases like yours specifically.
All figures are expressed in 2026 dollars throughout.
A NOTE ON USING THESE FIGURES
This calculator is an educational tool. The figures it produces are based on historical outcomes and are intended to give you a data-informed starting point for understanding what cases like yours have been worth in Florida. They are not a prediction of what your specific case will recover.
Every malpractice case is unique. The strength of the evidence, the skill of your attorney, the specific facts of the negligence, the available insurance coverage, and the jurisdiction where the case is filed all affect the outcome in ways that historical averages cannot capture.
If you believe you or a family member has been harmed by medical negligence, the most important step you can take is to speak with an experienced Florida medical malpractice attorney as early as possible. Florida’s statute of limitations gives you two years from the date you knew or should have known about the malpractice, and waiting can permanently bar your claim.
Data sourced from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Professional Liability Closed Claims Reporting system, 1994-2026. Settlement values adjusted to 2026 dollars using BLS Medical Care Services CPI, Series CUUR0000SAM. This page is an attorney advertisement published by Sackrin & Tolchinsky, P.A., 601 N. Federal Highway Suite 301, Hallandale Beach, Florida 33009. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this page.