Marjorie Chalfant, RN, JD

Marjorie Chalfant merges her nursing experience with malpractice law.

Florida nurse-attorney Marjorie Chalfant has more than 40 years of combined medical-legal experience representing victims of serious injuries and medical malpractice. Before law school, Marjorie Chalfant worked as a critical care Registered Nurse in numerous hospitals and nursing homes in Central Florida. While attending law school at Seattle University, and even after she became an attorney, Marjorie Chalfant also worked at most major hospitals in the Seattle area, including Harborview – a Level I Trauma Center and one of the top emergency departments in the nation. Her nursing expertise focused on Emergency and Trauma Care, Cardiac Care and Intensive Care Nursing – the most complex and rigorous specialties of nursing care.

Since graduating law school in 1991, Marjorie Chalfant has applied her extensive nursing experience to her law practice. She specializes in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases, representing patients and their surviving family members in medical malpractice and serious auto accident cases.

When difficult cases don’t settle, Marjorie Chalfant is prepared and ready to represent her clients through trial to get justice. Knowing the medicine and being familiar with complex medical problems gives her a tremendous advantage in representing injured clients.

Marjorie Chalfant’s nursing background:

After graduating from high school at the age of 16 she attended nursing school and was Vice-President of her nursing class (at the age of 17). Throughout nursing school, Marjorie Chalfant worked as a Nursing Assistant in many Florida hospitals and nursing homes. After graduating from nursing school at the age of 18 she continued her college education at the University of Central Florida while working as a Critical Care nurse. While obtaining pre-requisites for law school Marjorie Chalfant managed a cardiac rehabilitation and wellness program for Winter Park Memorial Hospital (now part of the Florida Hospital/Adventist Health System) and started a very innovative pulmonary rehabilitation program for patients suffering with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and other respiratory disabilities.

While attending Seattle University School of Law, Marjorie Chalfant worked at Harborview, a Level I Trauma Center. After graduating from law school, she continued to work as a Trauma Nurse at Harborview while building her own specialty medical malpractice and serious injury law firm in the Seattle (Bellevue) area.

Although Marjorie Chalfant is now retired from nursing practice, she stays informed on the latest medical practices. She knows the standards of care and what is expected of nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers. As an experienced Registered Nurse, she knows what goes on “behind the scenes” in hospitals and nursing homes, and she is extremely comfortable with reviewing and understanding medical records and complex medical issues.

Marjorie Chalfant’s litigation background:

Although Marjorie Chalfant has experience with a wide variety of legal matters, her most outstanding talent is representing clients in medical malpractice and serious injury cases. Her exceptional results with difficult and complex cases have demonstrated her advantage in having combined careers in nursing and law. In addition to the satisfaction of getting justice for her clients, she enjoys the intellectual challenge and complexity of medical-legal cases.

Marjorie Chalfant has won and settled several multi-million-dollar cases.*  Courtroom / jury trial victories include:

• a $7,500,000.00 jury verdict in Charlotte County in September 2021, for a hospital’s failure to provide appropriate medical care and surgery for a gentleman to treat blockages in his carotid arteries, where the defendant hospital refused to pay more than $140,000.00;
• a $3,000,000.00 jury verdict in an infection case where the defendant lawyers and doctors refused to pay more than $100,000.00; and
• a $500,000.00 jury verdict in a misdiagnosis case where the defendant physicians and their lawyers refused to pay a dime, and boasted confidence they would win a defense verdict.

Marjorie Chalfant is best known for her medical expertise, aggressive representation of her clients and attention to detail. In addition to practicing law, Marjorie Chalfant provides lectures to other lawyers on trial techniques and medical issues. While practicing law in Washington State she was selected by judges and lawyers as one of the best lawyers in the State, earning prestigious Super Lawyer awards in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

*Ms. Chalfant’s prior jury trial victories do not guarantee the same or similar result for every case but are presented to demonstrate her trial skills and successful track record. Every case is unique with varying facts and circumstances. 

Marjorie Chalfant’s personal background:

Marjorie Chalfant has lived in Florida since she was 5 years old (before Disney World and in the days when Busch Gardens was just a garden and a brewery) and attended public schools in the Central Florida area. She relocated to the Seattle area to live with family in the Pacific Northwest and attend law school, but desired to return to the Sunshine State after 15 years of “less-than-sunny” weather.

In addition to her successful careers in law and nursing, Marjorie Chalfant has 4 grown children and lives on a farm with horses, chickens, ducks, peacocks, cats, dogs, and an assortment of wildlife.