These ex parte interviews, as the name indicates, are authorized outside the presence of the injured person and their attorneys. Failure to waive the right to privacy would eliminate the right to sue.
The Florida Justice Association of plaintiffs attorneys “was not willing to allow the ex parte law to stand without a fight,” said Ken Sobel of Freedland Harwin in Fort Lauderdale, one of the attorneys testing the constitutionality of the law.
A group was assembled after the bill’s passage to coordinate litigation, Sobel said. On Monday, three lawsuits were filed in federal court and two in state court.
Neal Roth of Grossman Roth in Coral Gables brought a similar action on behalf of an anonymous plaintiff styled “Jane Doe” in Miami federal court. She seeks a court declaration that the presuit waiver violates her federal rights under the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act of 1996 or HIPAA.
