The first call to a medical malpractice lawyer is usually made by someone who is already exhausted. A loved one is sick or has died. Medical records sit on a kitchen table in a stack nobody wants to read again. People at the hospital have stopped returning calls. By the time someone picks up the phone to look for a lawyer, the question is rarely whether something went wrong — it's whether anything can be done about it.
If you are about to make that call, here is what to expect, what to bring, and what you will know by the time the conversation ends.
The Initial Conversation Is Free, and It's Confidential
The first conversation costs nothing. At The Alvarez Law Firm, we do not bill for the initial consultation, and we do not require payment to evaluate whether you have a case. Anything you tell us is confidential under attorney-client privilege, even if we never end up representing you.
You do not need to make a decision about hiring anyone on the first call. The purpose of this meeting is straightforward: tell us what happened, let us ask the questions we need to ask, and at the end you will know whether your situation warrants further investigation.
What to Bring (Even If You Don't Have Everything)
Do not delay the call because your file is incomplete. We have done these intakes for over thirty years and we know that families rarely have a tidy folder ready to hand over. Bring what you have:
- A timeline. A page of notes — even rough — with dates of major events: the original treatment, the diagnosis you believe was missed or delayed, follow-up appointments, when symptoms got worse, and when you first realized something was wrong.
- Names of providers and facilities. The doctors, hospitals, clinics, urgent cares, and any specialists involved.
- Medical records you already have. Discharge summaries, lab reports, imaging discs, billing statements, the after-visit summaries the patient portal generates. We can request the rest.
- Insurance information. Health insurance cards or policy details. This affects how we handle medical bills during the case.
- Names of anyone who knows the story. Family members or friends who were in the room for important conversations with doctors.
If you have nothing prepared, come anyway. We can build the file together.
What We Will Ask You
Our intake conversation generally follows the same path. We are listening for four things at once: the medical timeline, the apparent deviation from the standard of care, whether the harm was caused by that deviation, and whether the case is realistically actionable in Florida given filing deadlines and the cost of pursuing it.
Common questions in a first meeting include:
- What was the patient being treated for before the incident?
- What specifically happened that you believe was wrong?
- When did you first start to suspect something had gone wrong?
- What did the providers tell you about what happened — both at the time and afterward?
- What is the patient's medical condition now, and what is the long-term prognosis?
- Has any other lawyer reviewed this case?
Take your time with the answers. The details that feel "minor" are often the ones that matter most for the legal analysis. If you do not remember something, it is fine to say so.
Plain language: The point of the first meeting is not to decide whether you have a case in 30 minutes. The point is to figure out whether the case is worth a full investigation — which is the next step if the initial conversation goes well.
How We Evaluate Medical Malpractice Cases
The Alvarez Law Firm has an unusual structure for evaluating these cases. Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D. is both a physician and a lawyer. He reads the medical records personally. That matters because it lets us identify deviations from the standard of care in-house, before we ever pay an outside expert to look at the file.
That changes the conversation in two ways. First, we can give you a more informed read on the medicine after the first meeting than most firms can. Second, when we do retain an outside specialist for the formal pre-suit affidavit Florida requires, we know what we're looking at first.
The Florida-Specific Things We Talk About on Day One
Florida malpractice law has rules that are unique enough that we cover them on the first call:
- The two-year statute of limitations (with the four-year outer cap and narrow exceptions for fraud, concealment, and minors). The clock has likely already started running — we need to know how much time is left.
- The 90-day pre-suit notice period. Florida requires you to give the defendants 90 days' notice with a sworn affidavit from a qualified medical expert before you can file the lawsuit itself.
- The damages structure. Florida law treats economic damages, non-economic damages, and punitive damages differently. We will give you a candid read on what a case in your situation typically recovers.
- Letters of Protection and bill management. If you cannot pay medical bills right now, there are mechanisms to keep providers off your back during the case.
If you have not already, read our companion guide on how long you have to file a medical malpractice case in Florida before the meeting.
What You Will Know by the End of the Meeting
By the end of the initial conversation, you should walk away with answers to these questions:
- Is this the kind of case we handle?
- Does it look like there is a real deviation from the standard of care, or does it look more like a bad outcome that the law would not treat as malpractice?
- What is the next step — do we request records, or is the answer no?
- What will it cost you to find out? (The answer is almost always nothing — we work on contingency.)
- How long do you have to decide whether to move forward, given Florida deadlines?
You will not leave the call with a settlement number. Anyone who gives you a settlement number on the first call without seeing the records is guessing.
The Contingency-Fee Conversation
Medical malpractice cases at The Alvarez Law Firm are handled on a contingency basis. That means:
- You do not pay attorney's fees out of pocket. The firm's fee is a percentage of the recovery, and only if there is a recovery.
- The firm advances the costs of investigation and litigation — expert review, depositions, court filings, demonstratives.
- If there is no recovery, you owe no fee.
The exact percentage is governed by Florida Bar rules and is disclosed in the fee agreement before you sign. The number is not a surprise, and it is the same number the law allows any firm to charge.
How to Schedule the Meeting
Call (305) 444-7675 or use the contact form to request a free case review. We typically respond within one business day. Initial meetings can be done by phone, video, or in person at our Coral Gables office — whichever is easiest for the patient and family.
If you are still inside Florida's two-year window but it is closing in, say so when you call. We move faster when the calendar requires it.