Anything No Longer Goes: How the Eleventh Circuit has Settled on One Standard to Determine Deliberate-Indifference Claims

Deliberate indifference to the medical care of a loved one, or oneself, rightly causes outrage. When such an occurrence takes place behind prison walls, inmates or loved ones on their behalf, file a deliberate indifference claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983,and they allege a violation of their Eighth Amendment right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment. However, the test for deliberate indifference has been misconstrued and misapplied for decades within the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Such a malleable test leads to different standards of proof for a plaintiff to meet, and confusion among judges and lawyers alike. Fortunately, the Eleventh Circuit in Wade v. McDade has settled the standard once and for all. In its en banc decision, the Eleventh Circuit held that a deliberate-indifference plaintiff must allege and prove more than gross negligence, which aligns with the criminal recklessness standard set by the Supreme Court of the United States for such claims.