Oscar Cabanas

Oscar J. Cabanas is a managing partner of the firm and works in the Miami office of Wicker Smith where he has been a shareholder since 1999. He holds an AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell and focuses his practice in healthcare, professional liability, products liability, commercial litigation, and transportation. Mr. Cabanas has been honored as an American Board of Trial Advocate’s Miami Chapter “Defense Lawyer of the Year” in 2020 and Best Lawyers in America’s Miami Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants “Lawyer of the Year” in 2018.

For over 35 years, Mr. Cabanas has represented healthcare providers, insurers, and insureds in complex medical malpractice actions, general liability issues, and transportation concerns. His experience includes bringing major catastrophic injury cases involving paraplegic, quadriplegic, brain damage, and other life-changing injuries to complete defense verdict where the plaintiffs blackboard eight-figure damages. He also litigates business and commercial disputes.

Mr. Cabanas is admitted to practice in Florida before the Southern and Middle District Federal Courts and in Illinois before the Northern District Federal Court and the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. He has held various leadership positions in a number of professional organizations including the American Board of Trial Advocates, where he served as past president and executive committee member to the Miami chapter and additionally served on the organization’s national board of directors. Mr. Cabanas has also held section-chair and vice-chair positions within the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel. He is currently Chair of the Trial Tactics and Procedure Section for the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel and is an active member of USLAW Network’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Cabanas received his Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University in 1981 and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami in 1984. He was born in Havana, Cuba and is fluent in Spanish, helping him further serve the diverse jurisdictions in South Florida from West Palm Beach to Key West.

Experience & Representative Matters:

• Confidential. Resolution of case involving allegations of human rights violations in not following proper bioethics protocols and laws in experimental testing leading multiple deaths and wrongful births. Confidential settlement including the drafting of new protocols for future use in addition to compensating parties.
• Boise v. Miami Children’s Hospital. Summary judgement on issues involving the rights of parents to terminate life support for their children and a hospitals’ duty as an advocate for their patients.
• Coachman v. Gumer. Jury defense verdict in paraplegia case involving alleged failure to diagnose epidural abbess.
• Santamaria v. Perey. Jury defense verdict in a case involving failure to diagnosis meningitis in young child.
• Suarez v. Anido.  Jury defense verdict in a wrongful death case of a 28-year-old mother of three involving issue of alleged misdiagnosis of breast cancer.
• Acosta v. Miami-Dade. Reversed trial court summary judgement and obtained judgement in favor of defense from appellate court in case expanded scope of workers’ compensation immunity.
• Izquierdo v. Hialeah Hospital. Summary judgement with issue affirmed on appeal establishing the elements of apparent agency in Florida.
• Confidential. Resolution of national probate matter involving historical institutions across multiple jurisdictions.

• American Bar Association
• American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
• American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
  • Defense Lawyer of the Year, 2020
  • Representative, National Board, 2016-Present
  • Executive Committee, Member
  • Past President, 2010
• American Hospital Association
• Cuban American Bar Association
• Dade County Bar Association
• Defense Research Institute
• Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel (FDCC), 2006-Present
  • Section-Chair, The Trial Tactics Section, 2019-2020
  • Vice-Chair, The Trial Tactics Section, 2016-2019
• Florida Defense Lawyers Association
• Florida Hospital Association
• Litigation Counsel of America
  • Senior Fellow, 2017
• Transportation Lawyers Association
• USLAW Network, Inc.
  • Board of Directors, Member, 2019-Present
  • Vice Program Chair, Professional Liability, 2019 Fall Conference

• Presenter, “Ethics for Claims Professionals”, The Doctors Company, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (November 7, 2018)
• Speaker, “Dissecting and Understanding the Tripartite Relationship”, 2018 USLAW Network Professional Liability Exchange In Cooperation With The Insurance And Risk Management Practice Group, May 2018
• Presenter, “Defending Negligent Premises Security Claims”, Orlando PLRB Conference, April 2018
• Presenter, Baptist Health South Florida, “The Importance of Documentation In The Electronic Medical Record”, October 2017
• Co-author, “Attacking ‘Fake Bills’ In Personal Injury Cases”, FDCC Insights, September 2017
• Author, “What’s So Special About Special Damages”, FDCC Trial Tactic Blog, June 2017
• Co-presenter, “The Good Fight Against Bad Medical Expenses”, FDCC Summer Meeting, Montreux, Switzerland, 2017
• Presenter, “Trends in Negligent Security Defense: A Trial Lawyer’s Guide to Winning The Case”, Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel (FDCC) Winter Meeting, Charleston, North Carolina, 2017