Richard E. Ramsey

Rick Ramsey

Richard Ramsey
Office: Jacksonville  
Direct: (904) 598-3201
rramsey@wickersmith.com

Practice Areas:
  • Medical Law
  • Professional Liability
  • Retail
  • Products Liability
  • Transportation
  • Administrative Law

    • Admitted to Practice:
    • 1987, Florida and U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
    • 1988, U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
    • 2001, U.S. Supreme Court
    • 2006, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida
    Education:
    • Catholic University (J.D., 1987)
    • New York University (B.A., cum laude, 1984)
    • Arizona State University (M.A., 2022)
    Born:  

    Trenton, NJ

    Richard Ramsey

    Biography

    Richard E. Ramsey is one of the firm’s four Managing Partners. He joined the firm in 1990, and opened the firm’s Jacksonville office in 2002.

    Rick has over 36 years of experience focusing on professional liability matters, including medical and legal malpractice. His main area of focus is medical malpractice, having won trials related to birth injury, death and significant disability. Likewise, he has been asked by several legal malpractice carriers to defend their insureds on cases ranging from complex business transactions, personal injury, and trust & estate matters. He is also well-versed on a broad array of complex litigation involving transportation matters, retail and restaurant defense, healthcare law and risk management, casualty claims defense, products liability, construction, product liability, nursing home, and employment litigation.

    Rick represents clients during some of the most difficult moments of their professional lives. He has successfully tried over 60 cases to verdict, resulting in 52 complete defense verdicts. Rick counts the times that he has been able to share a client’s relief after a defense verdict as some of the most rewarding moments of his career.

    Rick’s clients trust him to provide candid, truthful advice and evaluations, and they rest assured that Rick will do everything he can to help them achieve the best possible result, whether that is a jury trial or an early resolution. When a client’s livelihood is on the line, Rick is there to provide the support and legal guidance to resolve the case to the client’s satisfaction.

    He represents a wide range of clients including a large number of medical and legal malpractice carriers, The Medical Protective Company, MedMal Direct, The Doctor’s Company, Norcal, CNA, Dillards, Publix, McDonald’s, Ruby Tuesday, Office Depot and several hospitals.

    Rick is a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education, a distinction held by fewer than 1% of lawyers in the state. He is also a Certified Federal Court Arbitrator. Rick is admitted to practice in the State of Florida, the U.S. District Courts for both the Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

    He has held leadership positions in several professional organizations including USLAW NETWORK, where he served as Chair of the Professional Liability Section for two years, as well as The National Retail and Restaurant Defense Association. He has been honored as a Florida Super Lawyer for the past 14 years, and has been listed several times in Jacksonville Magazine’s Best Lawyers and Florida’s Legal Elite. Rick is a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, as well as DRI, and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale Hubbel.

    In addition to his practice, Rick is an excellent teacher. He is a frequent lecturer and has given more than 70 presentations nationally on topics involving medical and legal malpractice, risk management, handling catastrophic claims, apology and full disclosure, food borne illness and social media.


    Professional & Civic Affiliations
    • Member, Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel
    • USLAW NETWORK Professional Liability Section
      • Secretary: 2015
      • Vice Chair: 2016
      • Chair: 2017, 2018
    • Member, International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC)
    • The Florida Bar
      • Former Fourth Judicial Circuit Bar Grievance Committee
    • American Bar Association – ABA Advisory Panel
    • Jacksonville Bar Association
    • Florida Medical Malpractice Claims Council
    • Defense Research Institute
    • Florida Defense Lawyers Association
    • National Retail and Restaurant Defense Association
      • 2015-2016 Chairman of the Education Committee
      • 2012 Annual Conference Committee Member

    Richard Ramsey - Partner

    Rick Ramsey

    Richard Ramsey

    Partner

    Email: rramsey@wickersmith.com

    Direct: (904) 598-3201

    Fax: (904)355-0226

    Office: Jacksonville  

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    Profile

    Richard E. Ramsey is one of the firm’s four Managing Partners. He joined the firm in 1990, and opened the firm’s Jacksonville office in 2002.

    Rick has over 36 years of experience focusing on professional liability matters, including medical and legal malpractice. His main area of focus is medical malpractice, having won trials related to birth injury, death and significant disability. Likewise, he has been asked by several legal malpractice carriers to defend their insureds on cases ranging from complex business transactions, personal injury, and trust & estate matters. He is also well-versed on a broad array of complex litigation involving transportation matters, retail and restaurant defense, healthcare law and risk management, casualty claims defense, products liability, construction, product liability, nursing home, and employment litigation.

    Rick represents clients during some of the most difficult moments of their professional lives. He has successfully tried over 60 cases to verdict, resulting in 52 complete defense verdicts. Rick counts the times that he has been able to share a client’s relief after a defense verdict as some of the most rewarding moments of his career.

    Rick’s clients trust him to provide candid, truthful advice and evaluations, and they rest assured that Rick will do everything he can to help them achieve the best possible result, whether that is a jury trial or an early resolution. When a client’s livelihood is on the line, Rick is there to provide the support and legal guidance to resolve the case to the client’s satisfaction.

    He represents a wide range of clients including a large number of medical and legal malpractice carriers, The Medical Protective Company, MedMal Direct, The Doctor’s Company, Norcal, CNA, Dillards, Publix, McDonald’s, Ruby Tuesday, Office Depot and several hospitals.

    Rick is a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer by the Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education, a distinction held by fewer than 1% of lawyers in the state. He is also a Certified Federal Court Arbitrator. Rick is admitted to practice in the State of Florida, the U.S. District Courts for both the Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

    He has held leadership positions in several professional organizations including USLAW NETWORK, where he served as Chair of the Professional Liability Section for two years, as well as The National Retail and Restaurant Defense Association. He has been honored as a Florida Super Lawyer for the past 14 years, and has been listed several times in Jacksonville Magazine’s Best Lawyers and Florida’s Legal Elite. Rick is a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, as well as DRI, and holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale Hubbel.

    In addition to his practice, Rick is an excellent teacher. He is a frequent lecturer and has given more than 70 presentations nationally on topics involving medical and legal malpractice, risk management, handling catastrophic claims, apology and full disclosure, food borne illness and social media.

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    Credentials

    Education

    • Catholic University (J.D., 1987)
    • New York University (B.A., cum laude, 1984)
    • Arizona State University (M.A., 2022)

    Representative Matters

    Summary Judgment in a Legal Malpractice Matter

    Our client in this case, a lawyer, represented the Plaintiff, also a lawyer, in Plaintiff’s own Bar proceeding. Plaintiff was found liable by a District Court Judge of the allegations in the underlying matter, which triggered the scheduling of a disciplinary proceeding by The Florida Bar. Plaintiff did not attend this proceeding, and was subsequently disbarred.

    Plaintiff sued our client for malpractice, alleging that he missed the proceeding due to insufficient communication by our client as to the scheduling. Emails in evidence showed that our client timely notified the Plaintiff of the scheduled disciplinary proceeding, but the Plaintiff misunderstood the communication. We moved for summary judgment, arguing that whether or not Plaintiff attended his disciplinary proceeding would not have impacted the resulting disbarment, as he had already been found liable for the underlying allegations. The Court agreed with our assessment, and awarded summary judgment in our client’s favor.

    Defense Verdict in a Slip and Fall Case

    Plaintiff slipped and fell on ice water that had been dropped by another customer. It was claimed that our employee had actual knowledge of the danger and she failed to warn Plaintiff before he fell. Plaintiff claimed a torn rotator cuff and herniated disks in his lower back and generated approximately $400k in past and future medical expenses. The jury deliberated for less than 45 minutes before returning a complete defense verdict.

    Ruling Affirmed: Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal (Premises Liability)

    Jacksonville Partner, Rick Ramsey, and Miami Partner, Jessica Gross, recently prevailed in an appellate matter considered by Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal. Rick Ramsey handled the underlying case, a premises liability matter for a national fast food chain involving allegations of failure to properly warn of a dangerous condition and failure to properly maintain the premises. The Plaintiff slipped on an area of the floor that had been recently mopped by a store employee. A bright yellow wet floor sign was prominently displayed in the area. The Plaintiff initially denied seeing the wet floor sign but later tried to correct her testimony when the store video proved otherwise. The Plaintiff argued she was trapped and had no other choice but to traverse the wet floor because it was the path to the exit. The Court entered final summary judgment in favor of our client in July 2022. Jessica Gross handled the appeal. The Fifth DCA affirmed with a PCA and provisionally granted our motion for attorney’s fees. Proposals for settlement were served nearly five years before the entry of summary judgment, triggering our right to seek recovery of attorney’s fees. Congratulations Rick and Jessica on this excellent outcome.

    Summary Judgment: Duval County, Florida (Wrongful Death)

    Jacksonville partner Rick Ramsey recently obtained summary judgment in a wrongful death case on behalf of a national hotel chain. This case arose from an incident wherein four adults, ranging in age from their 40’s to their 60’s, checked into a Jacksonville hotel. They allegedly found what they thought was cocaine on the floor of the hotel bar, and returned to their room to intentionally ingest it. It turned out that the substance was not cocaine, but fentanyl. One of the four began to feel ill, and left the room to get some fresh air. He was discovered unresponsive near the pool by the hotel staff, who called the paramedics. He received a dose of Narcan, and was transported to the hospital to recover. His wife and the other couple were later discovered dead in their hotel room, having ingested fatal doses of fentanyl. The estates of all three of the deceased sued the hotel, arguing that had the hotel timely performed a wellness check at the room of the intoxicated guest, they would have found the other three individuals suffering the effects of overdose and could have administered Narcan to them as well, thus preventing their deaths. Our summary judgment argument was made in two parts. First, that Fla. Statute 768.075(4) provides immunity from suit to property owners when the injury or death was occasioned in the commission of a felony, and voluntarily being in possession of cocaine or fentanyl is a third degree felony; and second, that Plaintiff’s argument relied on the improper stacking of inferences, the first of which was the inference that the other three adults would have been alive when the fourth was discovered by the pool. There was no evidence of that causal link. The Court agreed and granted summary judgment, dismissing the case against our client. Due to the rejection of a Proposal for Settlement, we are now pursuing all available remedies to recover our clients’ fees and costs, including a 57.105 motion. Congratulations, Rick. The client is very pleased with the outcome of this difficult case.

    Defense Verdict: Flagler County, Florida (Medical Malpractice)

    Jacksonville partner, Rick Ramsey, and associate, Kyle Schmitt, secured defense verdicts on behalf of three doctors in a medical malpractice trial in Flagler County, Florida. Plaintiff sued our clients, alleging failure to diagnose and treat an aspirated iron pill. The Plaintiff allegedly aspirated the pill, spent 11 days in the hospital under our clients’ care, and was released. She returned to the hospital three days later with further complaints, became very ill and went on life support. Rick and Kyle retained experts in various specialties who helped show the jury that Plaintiff’s claims of aspiration were not feasible. By way of a successful Daubert hearing, they were also able to exclude much of the testimony from Plaintiff’s pulmonology expert regarding how much iron he believed had been aspirated, as well as how much damage was done to the Plaintiff’s lung. Efforts to settle this case failed, and the case proceeded to trial. After seven days of testimony, Plaintiff asked the jury for $4 million in future economic damages, plus a couple million more in pain and suffering. The jury returned a complete defense verdict for all three of our clients, triggering a PFS that was filed in October 2023.  

    Practices


    Education

    • Catholic University (J.D., 1987)
    • New York University (B.A., cum laude, 1984)
    • Arizona State University (M.A., 2022)

    Honors

    • Florida Trend Magazine, Florida’s Legal Elite, 2013, 2015
    • Jacksonville Magazine’s “Best Lawyers”, 2013-2016
    • Florida Super Lawyers, 2009-2022
    • USLAW Professional Liability Law Practice Group, Secretary, 2014-2015
    • Jacksonville Magazine’s “Top Lawyers” – Civil Litigation, October 2012
    • Super Lawyers Business Edition, 2011-2012
    • Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow, 2010
    • National Board of Trial Advocacy, 2010
    • Jacksonville Magazine’s 904 Edition “Top Lawyers” – Medical Malpractice, 2010
    • Jacksonville Magazine’s “Order in the Court Top Law Professionals” – Civil Litigation, 2009

    Credentials

    Admitted to Bar

    • 1987, Florida and U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
    • 1988, U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
    • 2001, U.S. Supreme Court
    • 2006, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida

    Professional Affiliations

    • Member, Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel
    • USLAW NETWORK Professional Liability Section
      • Secretary: 2015
      • Vice Chair: 2016
      • Chair: 2017, 2018
    • Member, International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC)
    • The Florida Bar
      • Former Fourth Judicial Circuit Bar Grievance Committee
    • American Bar Association – ABA Advisory Panel
    • Jacksonville Bar Association
    • Florida Medical Malpractice Claims Council
    • Defense Research Institute
    • Florida Defense Lawyers Association
    • National Retail and Restaurant Defense Association
      • 2015-2016 Chairman of the Education Committee
      • 2012 Annual Conference Committee Member
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