Miami Private InvestigationsBefore filing a Florida nursing home negligence or resident’s rights claim, the claimant must notify each prospective defendant by certified mail, return receipt requested, and the notice must carry a certificate of counsel that “counsel’s reasonable investigation” gave rise to a good faith belief that grounds exist against each of them (s. 400.0233(2), F.S.). No suit may then be filed for 75 days after the notice is mailed (s. 400.0233(3)(a)). Assisted living facility claims follow a parallel procedure (s. 429.293, F.S.). An investigator’s job is to make that certificate true: identify the right defendants, find the witnesses who saw the care, and assemble the public record on the facility before the notice is mailed.
This article covers the long-term-care version of the process. Our main guide to pre-suit investigation explains how we approach the work across case types.
Is a nursing home claim the same as a medical malpractice claim?
No, and the difference changes the playbook. An action under Part II of chapter 400 is not a claim for medical malpractice (s. 400.0235, F.S.), and chapter 766 does not apply to causes of action brought under ss. 400.023–400.0238 (s. 400.023(1)(e), F.S.). The assisted living statute says the same for ss. 429.29–429.298 (s. 429.29(1), F.S.). So the 90-day ch. 766 process and its corroborating expert opinion, covered in our article on medical malpractice presuit investigation, are replaced by a 75-day process with its own rules.
The limitations period is similar in shape: two years from the incident or its discovery, and no later than four years from the incident, extended where fraudulent concealment or intentional misrepresentation prevented discovery, but never beyond six years (s. 400.0236, F.S.; s. 429.296 for assisted living). The notice must be served within that period, and the period is tolled during the 75 days (s. 400.0233(4)).
Who can actually be named as a defendant?
This is where an investigator earns the engagement. For a nursing home, the exclusive cause of action may be brought only against the licensee, the licensee’s management or consulting company, its managing employees, and direct caregivers, whether employees or contractors; a passive investor is not liable, and anyone else can be added only after a hearing on a motion for leave to amend (s. 400.023(1), (3)). The statute defines a management or consulting company by function: an entity that contracts with or is paid by the licensee to hire or fire the administrator or director of nursing, control staffing levels, control the budget, or implement the facility’s policies (s. 400.023(2)(b)).
The name on the sign is rarely the licensee. Facilities are often held through layered entities, and the company that controls staffing may be a different one again. An investigator works through:
- The licensee. The entity named on the Agency for Health Care Administration’s public licence information for the facility, matched to Division of Corporations records on Sunbiz for its exact name, status, officers and registered agent.
- Management and related companies. Officers and addresses shared across entities, fictitious-name filings, and public filings that point to the company running operations, laid out so the attorney can test each one against the s. 400.023(2)(b) functions.
- Ownership changes. Whether the facility changed hands or operators around the incident dates, which can decide who held the licence when the care was given.
- Managing employees and direct caregivers. The administrator, director of nursing and the aides and nurses on the relevant shifts, with current addresses.
Our corporate due diligence work uses the same public-record methods. The attorney decides whom to name; the investigator documents the record behind each link.
What do the records rules require?
A nursing home must furnish copies of a resident’s records within 14 working days of a compliant request for a current resident, or 30 working days for a former resident (s. 400.145(1), F.S.). For a deceased resident, the statute lists who may ask: a court-appointed personal representative, a representative designated in a self-proved will, or, failing both, a surviving spouse, child or parent, with supporting documents (s. 400.145(2)-(3)).
The incentive to comply is strong. Failure to provide complete copies of the resident’s records, including all medical records and the chart, is evidence of failure to comply with good faith discovery requirements and waives the good faith certificate and presuit notice requirements for the requesting party (s. 400.0234(1), F.S.; s. 429.294(1) for assisted living). Whether that waiver applies in a given file is a judgment for counsel. The investigator’s role is practical: keep a dated log of what was requested, by whom, when it was received, and which pages, shifts or forms appear to be missing.
Who are the witnesses, and how do you find them?
Long-term-care cases turn on what happened across weeks of shifts, and the chart is written by the facility. The people who can fill gaps are:
- Family members and regular visitors, who often noticed weight loss, wounds, falls or unanswered call lights first, and who may have photographs, text messages and notes.
- Roommates and their families, interviewed with care for capacity and privacy.
- Former staff. Aides and nurses who have left the facility can be hard to find within months. Locating them uses lawful public-record locate methods; interviews are neutral, documented and done on counsel’s instructions.
- Outside providers, such as hospital emergency staff or hospice nurses, whose records may describe the resident’s condition on arrival.
Current facility employees are a different matter: whether and how they may be approached is for the attorney to decide.
What public records help build the timeline?
AHCA conducts periodic, unannounced licensure inspections, and must complete complaint investigations within 60 days and give the complainant its findings (s. 400.19(1), (3), F.S.). Inspection reports and any complaint findings for the facility, before and around the residency, can show whether issues in the claim had been cited before. The investigator pulls what is publicly available, and adds court records of prior suits against the same licensee or management company.
All of it goes into a single timeline: admission, care-plan changes, falls or wounds, hospital transfers, family complaints, inspection dates and staffing or ownership changes. The timeline is what the attorney and any retained nurse or physician reviewer work from.
What happens during the 75 days?
The prospective defendants or their insurers must evaluate the claim in good faith, through a risk manager or claims adjuster, counsel, a quality assurance committee or a similar procedure, and by the end of the period reject the claim or make a settlement offer; no reply within 75 days after receipt is deemed a rejection (s. 400.0233(3)). Informal discovery is available: unsworn statements, and documents produced within 20 days of a request (s. 400.0233(7)). A written settlement offer must be accepted within 15 days, and mediation follows within 30 days after the claimant receives the response (s. 400.0233(9), (11)).
Work product generated by the presuit claims evaluation procedures is not discoverable or admissible by the opposing party, and participants, expressly including investigators and witnesses, are immune from civil liability arising from participation (s. 400.0233(5)). For the claimant’s side, the 75 days are the time to finish locating witnesses and prepare for unsworn statements.
When should the investigator start?
At intake, before the records request goes out, so the request list and the defendant list are built from the facts. Our page on investigating a claim before filing suit explains how we scope this work, and the services for attorneys page lists related support.
Miami Private Investigations is licensed in Florida under agency licence A1800135. Attorneys can call (305) 686-7826 or contact us for a confidential consultation.