Florida Personal Injury Claim Timeline

The deadlines that matter

Step by step

1. 1

   Stop, check for injuries, and exchange information

   Florida requires the driver of any vehicle involved in a crash to give their name, address and vehicle registration number, to show a license or permit on request, and to render reasonable assistance to anyone injured — including arranging transport to a physician or hospital where treatment is apparently necessary. Leaving before you have done this converts a civil claim into a criminal problem.

2. 2

   Call the police from the scene, not afterwards

   The statute is not discretionary: where the crash involves injury, death, or apparent damage of at least $500 to any vehicle or other property, the driver must immediately, by the quickest means of communication, give notice to the local police department, or otherwise to the county sheriff or the nearest Florida Highway Patrol station. An officer who investigates a crash involving death, personal injury, or any indication of complaints of pain or discomfort must complete the Long Form report — which is the document your claim will later be built on.

3. 3

   Get examined the same day, and no later than day 14

   This is the single most consequential deadline in Florida injury law and the one most often missed. PIP medical benefits are only reimbursable if the injured person receives initial services and care within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident. That first contact must come from a physician, osteopathic physician, dentist, chiropractic physician, advanced practice registered nurse, a hospital emergency department, or a licensed ambulance provider. Follow-up care then flows from a referral by one of those providers.

4. 4

   Ask whether an emergency medical condition was found

   The number attached to your file at this point decides the size of the medical pot. Where a qualified provider determines that you had an emergency medical condition, PIP medical benefits reach the $10,000 limit. Where a provider determines that you did not, reimbursement is capped at $2,500. Nothing else about your injury changes that split — only the determination does.

5. 5

   Document what the report will not capture

   Photograph vehicle positions, damage, skid marks, road debris, signage and the weather before anything is moved. Collect names and phone numbers of witnesses, who will be far harder to find in six months. Keep the discharge paperwork from every visit. If a business or traffic camera may have caught the crash, ask about it in writing within days — retention periods are often measured in weeks.

6. 6

   Obtain the crash report

   Reports held by an agency are confidential and exempt from public disclosure for 60 days after filing, but the statute makes them immediately available to the parties involved in the crash, their legal representatives, their licensed insurance agents and their insurers. You do not have to wait out the 60 days to read your own report. Purchase or request it through the FLHSMV crash portal or the investigating agency.

7. 7

   Open the PIP claim with your own insurer

   Florida is a no-fault state, so the first claim is against your own policy regardless of who caused the crash. PIP pays 80 percent of reasonable and necessary medical expenses and 60 percent of lost gross income, subject to the $10,000 or $2,500 cap, plus a $5,000 death benefit. Report the claim promptly, keep the claim number, and keep every bill and wage record — the gap between what PIP pays and what the injury actually cost is the claim against the at-fault driver.

8. 8

   Be careful with the other driver's insurer

   The adjuster on the other side is not neutral, and a recorded statement given before your injuries have been fully diagnosed becomes the ceiling on your account of them. You are not required to give one. Anything posted publicly — a photo at a family event, a comment that you are feeling better — will be found and used.

9. 9

   Watch the two-year clock while you negotiate

   Negotiations do not stop the limitations period, and an adjuster is under no obligation to warn you that it is running out. Actions founded on negligence, and actions for wrongful death, must be brought within two years. A claim that is still being discussed on the day the period expires is a claim that is over.

Why the 14-day rule decides your medical bills

Florida's no-fault system was rewritten so that PIP medical benefits attach only when treatment starts early. The statute conditions reimbursement on the injured person receiving initial services and care within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident. There is no hardship exception written into the provision, and no amount of later treatment cures a late start.

The practical trap is the injury that does not announce itself. Soft-tissue neck and back injuries, concussions and disc injuries frequently feel manageable for a week and then worsen. By the time the pain is bad enough to send someone to a clinic, the fourteenth day has often passed and the medical benefits are gone.

The safe practice is to be evaluated on the day of the crash, even where you feel able to walk away from it. An emergency department visit, an urgent-care evaluation or an appointment with a physician all satisfy the requirement; a chiropractic or dental visit within the same window does as well.

• Physician or osteopathic physician licensed under chapter 458 or 459
• Dentist licensed under chapter 466
• Chiropractic physician licensed under chapter 460
• Advanced practice registered nurse under chapter 464
• Hospital, or a facility owned by a hospital, providing emergency services
• Licensed ambulance provider under chapter 401 rendering care at the scene

What PIP actually pays, and where it stops

PIP is a floor, not a remedy. The statute provides $10,000 in combined medical and disability benefits, plus a $5,000 death benefit — and it does not pay any of those amounts in full. Medical benefits are 80 percent of all reasonable expenses for necessary medical and rehabilitative services. Disability benefits are 60 percent of any loss of gross income and loss of earning capacity.

That leaves three gaps in every serious case: the 20 percent of medical bills PIP does not cover, the 40 percent of wages it does not replace, and everything above the cap. For an injury requiring surgery, the cap is usually exhausted before the first operation is billed.

None of the money for pain, suffering, mental anguish or loss of enjoyment of life comes from PIP. That recovery only exists in a claim against the at-fault driver, and only where the injury clears the statutory threshold.

• $10,000 combined medical and disability limit; $2,500 where no emergency medical condition is determined
• 80% of reasonable and necessary medical expenses
• 60% of lost gross income and loss of earning capacity
• $5,000 death benefit
• No payment for pain, suffering or other non-economic harm

Stepping outside no-fault

Florida limits when an injured person may sue the at-fault driver for pain and suffering. The tort exemption in section 627.737 permits that recovery only where the injury consists in whole or in part of significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability other than scarring or disfigurement, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.

Meeting the threshold is a medical question answered with medical records, which is another reason the early treatment history matters so much. A permanent-injury opinion is far easier to support when the record shows continuous care from the week of the crash than when it begins two months later.

Economic losses above the PIP cap — the remaining medical bills, the rest of the lost income, future care — are recoverable from the at-fault driver without clearing the threshold.

Fault is apportioned, and past 50 percent it is fatal

Florida applies modified comparative fault. Damages are reduced in proportion to the injured person's share of responsibility, and under section 768.81(6) any party found to be greater than 50 percent at fault for their own harm may not recover any damages at all. That bar does not apply to actions for personal injury or wrongful death arising out of medical negligence under chapter 766.

This is why insurers invest so heavily in building a fault narrative early — a recorded statement, a social media post, an admission at the scene. A shift from 45 percent to 51 percent is not a discount; it is the end of the case.

It is also why independent evidence matters more than argument. Scene photographs, dashcam footage, vehicle telematics and named witnesses are what move an apportionment finding.

The two-year deadline, and the one exception people rely on too late

The limitations period for an action founded on negligence in Florida is two years. So is the period for wrongful death. The shortened period came in with the 2023 civil-remedies legislation, chapter 2023-15, approved by the Governor and effective on 24 March 2023; claims that accrued before that date may still fall under the previous four-year period, which is a question to put to an attorney rather than assume.

Medical negligence claims carry an additional layer. Before suit can be filed, the claimant must serve presuit notice of intent to initiate litigation on each prospective defendant, and no suit may be filed for 90 days after that notice is delivered. The limitations period is tolled during the 90-day period and for 60 days after, or the remainder of the period, whichever is longer.

Insurance claims against your own carrier are governed by the policy and by separate statutory provisions, and a denial does not extend the deadline to sue the person who caused the injury.

Common mistakes

• Waiting past day 14 for the first medical visit because the pain seemed manageable — the PIP medical benefit is then unavailable for the whole claim.
• Agreeing not to call the police because the other driver offered to pay for the damage privately.
• Giving the other driver's insurer a recorded statement before a doctor has finished diagnosing the injury.
• Assuming PIP covers the loss, and only discovering the 80/60 split and the $2,500 non-emergency cap when the bills arrive.
• Posting about the crash, the recovery or an unrelated activity on social media while the claim is open.
• Treating a friendly adjuster as a reason to delay — negotiations do not toll the two-year period.
• Letting a gap open in treatment. Unexplained breaks in care are read as evidence that the injury resolved.

Frequently asked questions