Under Florida’s no-fault system, the first insurance to answer a crash is your own. Personal injury protection (PIP) pays regardless of who caused the collision, covering 80% of medical bills and 60% of lost wages up to a combined $10,000. It contributes nothing toward pain and suffering.
One rule does more quiet damage than any other. You generally have to be seen by a doctor within 14 days of the crash to use your PIP benefits at all. Let that window close and the coverage can be gone when the bills start coming.
When injuries are serious, Florida law lets you move past no-fault. A permanent injury, significant scarring, the loss of an important bodily function: any of those can open a claim straight against the at-fault driver for what PIP does not touch. That is where fault becomes the whole argument. Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule, picture a jury that values your claim at $250,000 and assigns you 10% of the blame. You recover $225,000. Go past 50% at fault and you recover nothing.
One deadline holds the rest of it together. A 2023 change to Florida law gives you two years from the crash to file an injury lawsuit, down from the old four. The clock starts on the day of the wreck, not the day the pain finally settles in.
