How long do I have to file a car accident claim in Florida?

Two years to file a lawsuit against the driver who caused the crash, for most crashes on or after March 24, 2023. Before that date it was four. But two years is only one of four clocks. Personal Injury Protection requires your first care within 14 days. A claim against a city, county or state vehicle needs written notice before suit. And a claim on your own policy runs on contract rules. The safe plan is to treat the shortest deadline that could apply to you as the real one.

01 The four clocks

Four deadlines that run from one crash

Fourteen days, for PIP. Your own no-fault coverage pays nothing unless you received initial services and care within fourteen days after the crash (§ 627.736(1)(a)). It is the shortest clock and the one most often missed (what happens if you missed it).

Two years, for the lawsuit against the driver. An action founded on negligence must be filed within two years (§ 95.11(5)(a)), for a cause of action that accrued after March 24, 2023.

Notice first, then suit, for a government vehicle. A claim against the state or one of its agencies or subdivisions needs written notice within three years and then suit within four, and a wrongful death claim runs two years (§ 768.28(6) and (14)).

A claim on your own policy runs under the policy and under contract law. An action on a written contract generally has five years (§ 95.11(2)(b)), but the policy sets its own duties, and a separate thirty-day rule starts the moment the other driver’s insurer makes an offer.

They do not wait for each other. A person can lose PIP on day fifteen with years left on the lawsuit, or can have a lawsuit deadline nobody mentioned because the first calls were about the car.

Four clocks run from one crash. The earliest one that could apply to you is the one to plan around.

02 The lawsuit

The lawsuit against the driver: two years from the crash

The deadline is two years, and it ends with a filing in court. Sending a demand letter, opening a claim with the insurer, or being in the middle of negotiations does not stop it. Florida’s list of what pauses a limitations period is closed: a disability or other reason does not toll the clock unless the statute lists it (§ 95.051(2)), and negotiation is not on the list.

The clock starts when the last element of the claim occurs. A cause of action accrues when the last element constituting it occurs (§ 95.031(1)). For an injury from a crash, that is ordinarily the crash itself. It is not the day you learned the injury was serious, or the day a doctor gave it a name.

The two-year rule is recent. The Legislature cut the negligence period from four years to two in chapter 2023-15, approved March 24, 2023. Section 28 of that act applies the change to causes of action accruing after the effective date. A crash before March 24, 2023 kept the four-year period.

Wrongful death is also two years. The action runs two years under § 95.11(5)(e), whether the person died at the scene or months later of the injury.

03 What can change it

What can make the two years longer, and what cannot

Very little can, and what can is narrow. The statute pauses the clock for a handful of situations, and two of them matter for a crash: the person to be sued is absent from the state, or uses a false name or conceals themselves so that process cannot be served (§ 95.051(1)(a)–(c)). Those paragraphs do not apply if the person can still be served by a method that gives the court jurisdiction.

A child’s clock is not simply paused. Minority tolls the period only while no parent or guardian exists or while the parent or guardian has an interest adverse to the child, or is adjudicated incapacitated, and in any event the action must begin within seven years of the event (§ 95.051(1)(i)). If a child was hurt, treat the same two years as the plan.

Being unable to work, in pain or in the hospital does not stop the clock. The closed list in § 95.051(2) is the reason. The only incapacity that tolls the period is one adjudicated before the cause of action accrued.

Leaving the state yourself does not pause it either. The statute covers the absence of the person to be sued, not the injured person.

04 Government vehicles

A city bus, a police car or a county truck: notice comes first

Suing a government agency is a different procedure, not the same one with a longer date. Florida allows claims against the state and its agencies and subdivisions for negligence, but the claimant must first present the claim in writing to the agency, and, except for a municipality or a county, also to the Department of Financial Services, within three years, and the claim must be denied in writing. Presenting and denial are conditions of the suit (§ 768.28(6)).

The suit then has its own limit. It is barred unless filed within four years of when the claim accrued, except that wrongful death and medical malpractice follow § 95.11(5), and a wrongful death claim has to be presented to the Department of Financial Services within two years (§ 768.28(14) and (6)(a)2.).

The recovery is capped. The state and its agencies and subdivisions are not liable to pay a claim or judgment by one person above $200,000, or above $300,000 for all claims from one incident, unless the Legislature passes a claim bill for the excess (§ 768.28(5)(a)).

These dates do not come from the same place as the two-year rule, which is why the notice is the thing to send first and the date to check twice.

05 Your own policy

A claim on your own policy: the contract period and the thirty days

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is a claim against your own insurer, and it is a contract claim. A written contract action generally has five years under § 95.11(2)(b). That does not mean you have five years from the crash. When the claim accrues, and what the policy requires you to do before then, are decided by the policy and by case law, and are not something to assume from the date of the crash.

The thirty-day rule has nothing to do with the calendar. When the at-fault driver’s insurer offers its limits and that will not fully pay your claim, Florida requires written notice to your underinsured motorist insurer before you accept, and the insurer then has thirty days to authorize the settlement or pay you the amount of the offer itself (§ 627.727(6)). A release signed without that notice can end the larger claim.

Policy conditions can be shorter than the statute. Prompt notice and cooperation are duties in the policy, and a delay in reporting gives the insurer an argument it should not be given.

06 Waiting

Why the last month before the deadline is a bad time to start

Most of what decides a case is gone long before the deadline. Video from a nearby business is commonly overwritten in days or weeks. Witnesses move. A vehicle is repaired or sold, and with it the data it recorded. A case started in month twenty-two is a case in which most of the evidence can no longer be collected.

Building a claim takes longer than people expect. A claim needs the treatment to reach a point where the injury can be described, the records to be gathered, the insurer to be given a chance to respond, and, where that fails, a complaint drafted and filed. All of that has to fit inside the time left.

Filing is not the same as being ready. A complaint filed to protect the deadline is a legitimate use of the process, and it is what a careful lawyer does when time is short. It is not a substitute for doing the work earlier.

08 What to do now

1. Write down the date of the crash and put the earliest deadline in your calendarThe earliest is the fourteen-day PIP window. After that, the two-year date, or the three-year notice date if a government vehicle was involved.
2. Find out who or what hit youA private driver, a company vehicle, a rideshare car and a government vehicle each lead to different rules. The police report usually answers it.
3. Do not treat negotiation as protectionCalls and letters with an insurer do not stop any of these clocks. Only a filed lawsuit does, and for a government claim, only a timely written notice does.
4. Send written notice early if a government vehicle was involvedDo not wait for the last day of the three years. The agency’s denial is a condition of suing, and it takes time.
5. Keep every letter from your own insurerThe policy conditions, the reservation-of-rights letters and the offers all carry dates, and some of them start the thirty-day rule.
6. Have the deadlines confirmed before the money questionA person can be negotiating for months while a clock expires. A short call with Jose A. Dapena puts the real dates on paper for your crash.

10 The sources

• Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) Negligence: two yearsAn action founded on negligence must be commenced within two years. Wrongful death is also two years under § 95.11(5)(e).
• Ch. 2023-15, Laws of Florida, ss. 28 and 31 The 2023 changeThe amendments to § 95.11 apply to causes of action accruing after the effective date. The act was approved March 24, 2023 and took effect upon becoming a law.
• Fla. Stat. § 95.031 When a cause of action accruesThe time runs from when the last element of the cause of action occurs.
• Fla. Stat. § 95.051 What pauses the periodA closed list of events that toll a limitations period. A disability or other reason not on the list does not.
• Fla. Stat. § 768.28 Claims against the state and its subdivisionsWritten notice within three years, then suit within four; wrongful death follows § 95.11(5); recovery is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.
• Fla. Stat. § 627.736 Personal Injury ProtectionInitial services and care within 14 days after the crash.
• Fla. Stat. § 627.727 Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverageThe notice to your insurer that must precede acceptance of the other driver’s policy limits, and the thirty days it has to respond.