No-fault is the rule in Florida, and it decides who pays first. Your own personal injury protection (PIP) coverage steps in after a crash, no matter who was at fault, paying 80% of medical bills and 60% of lost wages to a $10,000 cap. PIP does not touch pain and suffering.
A deadline hides inside that coverage. You generally have to see a doctor within 14 days of the crash to use your PIP benefits at all. Miss that window, and the coverage can be gone for good.
Serious injuries change the picture. A permanent injury, significant scarring, or the loss of an important bodily function: any of these lets you step outside no-fault and bring a claim directly 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 $90,000 but finds you 15% responsible. You recover $76,500. Cross 50%, and you recover nothing.
One deadline sits under all of it. Since a 2023 change to Florida law, you have just two years from the date of the crash to file an injury lawsuit, down from the four years Florida allowed before. The count starts the day of the wreck, well before most people know how hurt they really are.
