A crash in Florida starts a very specific clock, and the rules here work differently from most states. Florida is a no-fault state, so your own insurance pays your first medical bills no matter who caused the wreck. It also means a deadline you have probably never heard of can quietly erase your right to those benefits. Here is what actually applies in Florida, with the statute behind each rule.
At the scene: report the crash
Florida law requires the driver of any vehicle in a crash that injures or kills someone, or causes apparent property damage of at least $500, to notify police immediately by the quickest available means.1 Inside a city that is the local police department; outside one it is the county sheriff or the nearest Florida Highway Patrol station.1 The $500 trigger is low enough that almost any collision with visible damage meets it, so calling law enforcement is the safe default. Move to a safe spot if the cars can be driven, photograph the vehicles and the scene, and exchange names, insurance, and tag numbers with the other driver.
The 14-day medical deadline
This is the single most important thing to know in Florida. To keep your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits, you have to receive initial medical care within 14 days of the crash.2 Miss that window and you forfeit PIP entirely, even for a serious injury that surfaces later. An emergency room, urgent care, your own doctor, or a chiropractor all count, but the first visit has to happen inside those two weeks.
Get checked even if you feel fine. Soft-tissue and concussion symptoms often show up days after impact, and the deadline does not wait for them.
How Florida no-fault actually pays
PIP is mandatory at a $10,000 minimum, and it pays regardless of fault.23 What it pays is narrower than most drivers expect: 80% of reasonable and necessary medical expenses and 60% of lost wages, up to the policy limit.2 The full $10,000 is only available if a physician or other qualified provider certifies that you had an "emergency medical condition." Without that certification, PIP payments are capped at $2,500.2 That gap is why the wording of your medical records carries real weight.
What your policy has to include, and what it does not
Florida requires far less coverage than people assume. To register a vehicle you need $10,000 in PIP and $10,000 in Property Damage Liability, and that is the whole mandatory list.3 Bodily injury liability, the coverage that pays for injuries you cause to other people, is not required for ordinary private vehicles here.3 Efforts to change that failed again in the 2025 session, when House Bill 1181 and its Senate companion would have repealed PIP and added mandatory bodily injury limits. Neither passed, so no-fault and the $10,000 PIP floor remain the law.4
When you can step outside no-fault and sue
Because of no-fault, you generally cannot sue the other driver for pain and suffering. Florida lifts that bar only when your injury crosses a threshold written into statute: a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.5 Meet one of those and you can pursue non-economic damages against the at-fault driver on top of what PIP paid. Your economic losses beyond PIP, like the 20% of medical bills it did not cover and anything over the PIP limit, can be recovered from the at-fault driver even without crossing that threshold.
Fault now cuts harder than it used to
Florida once let an injured driver recover something even when they were mostly to blame. That ended with the 2023 tort reform law, HB 837. Under the current rule, anyone found more than 50% at fault for their own injuries recovers nothing.6 If you are 50% or less at fault, your award is reduced by your share instead of wiped out. That makes the fault investigation, and the photos and witness details you collect at the scene, worth far more than they were before.
Uninsured drivers are a real risk here
Because bodily injury coverage is optional, a large share of Florida drivers carry only PIP and property damage. If one of them injures you, there may be no liability policy to pursue. Uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage fills that gap. Insurers have to offer it to you at limits equal to your bodily injury coverage, but you are allowed to reject it or choose lower limits in writing on a state-approved form.7 Pull out your own declarations page and check. If you rejected UM/UIM, you may be your own only source of recovery after a hit by an uninsured driver.
The deadline to file a lawsuit
The same 2023 reform cut the statute of limitations for negligence claims from four years to two.8 For a crash on or after March 24, 2023, you have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit.8 The same two-year period covers ordinary vehicle-damage claims from negligence.8 Two years goes fast while you are still treating and negotiating, and a missed deadline ends the claim no matter how strong the facts are.
Damages, drunk drivers, and phones
There is no cap on compensatory damages, meaning medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering, in an ordinary Florida car case. Punitive damages are limited to the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000, rising to four times or $2 million when the conduct was motivated by unreasonable financial gain, with no cap at all when the defendant specifically intended to harm.9 Drunk driving gets its own treatment: if the at-fault driver was impaired or had a blood or breath alcohol level of 0.08% or higher, neither the punitive caps nor the usual heightened evidence standard applies.10
Two behaviors that often help prove fault are worth knowing. Handheld texting while driving is banned statewide, and an officer can pull you over for that alone.11 And Florida's motorcycle helmet law requires helmets for riders under 21 while letting riders 21 and up go without one only if they carry at least $10,000 in medical coverage; eye protection is required for every rider.12
Paperwork and next steps
You can buy the official Florida crash report from FLHSMV once the investigating agency files it. Details and links are on our Florida crash report page.13 If your car lost market value because it was wrecked, even after a clean repair, that is a separate claim covered on our Florida diminished value guide. And when injuries, disputed fault, or an uninsured driver put real money on the line, it is worth talking to a lawyer; you can start with our legal directory.
This is general information about Florida law, not legal advice.
Sources
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Fla. Stat. § 316.065 (crash reports; duty to report). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/316.065
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Fla. Stat. § 627.736 (Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law; PIP benefits, 14-day rule, emergency medical condition). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/627.736
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Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Florida Insurance Requirements. https://www.flhsmv.gov/insurance/
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Florida House of Representatives, HB 1181 (2025), Motor Vehicle Insurance (bill status). https://www.flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=81862
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Fla. Stat. § 627.737 (limitation on right to damages; tort threshold). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/627.737
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Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6) (comparative fault; more-than-50% bar). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/768.81
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Fla. Stat. § 627.727 (uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/627.727
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Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) (two-year limitations period for negligence). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/95.11
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Fla. Stat. § 768.73 (punitive damages; limitations). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/768.73
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Fla. Stat. § 768.736 (exception to punitive limits for alcohol or drug impairment). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/768.736
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Fla. Stat. § 316.305 (Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/316.305
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Fla. Stat. § 316.211 (equipment for motorcycle and moped riders; helmet and eye protection). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2025/316.211
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FLHSMV Crash Report Purchasing Portal. https://services.flhsmv.gov/CrashReportPurchasing/