Lee Weatherly and Gary Lovell recently won a Motion to Dismiss in United States District Court for the District of South Carolina on behalf of a correctional health care organization. In their Motion to Dismiss, Lee and Gary asked the Court to dismiss Plaintiff’s action for negligence against their client for failure to state a claim. Lee argued that Plaintiff’s failure to correctly follow South Carolina’s pre-suit requirements to bring an action for the alleged negligence of a health care provider warranted dismissal. Plaintiff countered that the pre-suit requirements to bring a negligence action against a health care provider in South Carolina were procedural and not mandatory in Federal Court. Plaintiff also argued that the South Carolina pre-suit requirements to bring an action for negligence against a medical provider were unconstitutional. The Court ruled that to file an action for medical malpractice in a South Carolina Federal Court, even if the terms “medical negligence” or “medical malpractice” are not specifically used in the Complaint, a Plaintiff must fully comply with the pre-suit requirements of South Carolina law. As Plaintiff had failed to comply with these requirements to bring an action for medical malpractice in South Carolina, the Court dismissed Lee and Gary’s client from the suit.