A crash in Florida runs through the no-fault system before anything else. Your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage pays no matter who caused it, handling 80% of medical bills and 60% of lost wages up to a $10,000 limit. None of it goes toward pain and suffering.
Whether you ever see that money depends on how fast you see a doctor. Florida generally requires treatment within 14 days of the crash for PIP to apply at all. Miss that window, and the coverage can be gone for good. It is the rule most Orlando drivers never hear about until it is already too late.
Serious injuries change the picture. A permanent injury, significant scarring, or the loss of an important bodily function lets you step outside no-fault and bring a claim straight against the at-fault driver for what PIP never covers. Fault becomes the central fight at that point. Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule, say a jury values your claim at $220,000 but finds you 38% responsible. You recover $136,400. Cross 50%, and you recover nothing.
There is also a hard stop. Since a 2023 change to Florida law, an injured driver has two years from the crash to file suit, half the four years the law once allowed. That count starts the day of the collision, not the day the injury makes itself known.
