Florida Personal Injury Laws: Deadlines to Sue, Fault Rules and Damage Caps

A lawsuit founded on negligence (such as most car-accident and slip-and-fall injury claims) must be filed within 2 years. Claims for assault, battery, false imprisonment and other intentional torts have 4 years, as do product-related injury claims.

A claim founded on negligence has 2 years, which generally covers negligent property damage. Actions for taking, detaining or injuring personal property, and for trespass on real property, are listed with a 4-year period.

A medical malpractice claim must be filed within 2 years from the incident or from when it was discovered or should have been discovered, but no later than 4 years after the incident. If fraud, concealment or intentional misrepresentation prevented discovery, the period is extended to 2 years from discovery, but no more than 7 years after the incident. Neither outer limit bars a claim on behalf of a child filed on or before the child's 8th birthday.

A wrongful death lawsuit must be filed within 2 years.

The deceased person's personal representative brings the action and recovers damages for the benefit of the survivors and the estate; all potential beneficiaries must be named in the complaint. Survivors may recover lost support and services. A surviving spouse may also recover for loss of companionship and for mental pain and suffering. Minor children (and adult children if there is no surviving spouse) may recover for lost parental companionship, guidance and mental pain and suffering. Parents of a minor child, and parents of an adult child when there are no other survivors, may recover for mental pain and suffering.

Modified comparative fault (51% bar). In negligence cases, an injured person's own fault reduces the damages proportionately, but a person found more than 50% at fault for his or her own harm recovers nothing. This bar does not apply to personal injury or wrongful death claims for medical negligence, where pure comparative fault applies. Each defendant generally pays only its own percentage of fault.

Punitive damages require clear and convincing evidence that the defendant was personally guilty of intentional misconduct or gross negligence, and a claim for them may be added only after a reasonable evidentiary showing. Awards are generally capped at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000; if the conduct was motivated solely by unreasonable financial gain and its danger was known to management, the cap is the greater of four times compensatory damages or $2 million. There is no cap if the defendant specifically intended to harm the claimant and did.

Before suing the State or a state agency or local subdivision, the claimant must present the claim in writing to the agency (and, except for cities, counties and the Florida Space Authority, also to the Department of Financial Services) within 3 years after the claim accrues, and the claim must be denied in writing first; wrongful death claims must be presented to the Department of Financial Services within 2 years. The lawsuit generally must be filed within 4 years (medical malpractice and wrongful death follow their usual deadlines). Recovery is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident; larger judgments can be paid only by a separate act of the Legislature. Punitive damages and pre-judgment interest are not allowed.

Strict liability with reductions. A dog owner is liable for damages to anyone bitten while in a public place or lawfully on private property (including the owner's), regardless of whether the dog was known to be vicious. The owner's liability is reduced by the bitten person's percentage of negligence. If the owner displayed an easily readable "Bad Dog" sign in a prominent place, the owner is not liable unless the victim was under 6 or the owner was negligent.

Florida is a no-fault state. Owners must carry personal injury protection (PIP) of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits (medical benefits pay 80% of reasonable expenses) and $5,000 in death benefits, plus $10,000 of property damage liability. Because of PIP, an injured person can sue an at-fault driver for pain, suffering and similar non-economic damages only if the injury involves significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.

A driver in a crash that causes injury or death, or apparent damage to a vehicle or other property of at least $2,000, must immediately notify police by the quickest means available: the local police department if inside a city, otherwise the county sheriff or the nearest Florida Highway Patrol office. Failing to do so is a noncriminal traffic infraction.

When a crash damages a vehicle or other property and no law enforcement report is required, the driver must send a written crash report to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles within 10 days after the crash, on a form the department approves. Crashes with injury, death, complaints of pain, a hit-and-run or DUI, a vehicle towed from the scene, or a commercial vehicle get a Long Form report from the investigating officer instead.

A driver in a crash on public or private property must stop at or as near the scene as possible, stay until giving name, address and vehicle registration number, show a license on request (including to police), and give reasonable help to anyone injured, including arranging transport for medical care. For an unattended vehicle or property, the driver must find the owner or leave a written note and notify police. Leaving a crash with injury is a third-degree felony; with serious bodily injury, a second-degree felony; with a death, a first-degree felony with a 4-year mandatory minimum prison term. Leaving a property-damage-only crash is a second-degree misdemeanor. Convictions for leaving an injury or death crash carry at least a 3-year license revocation.

Slip and fall in a store or other business: if a person slips and falls on a 'transitory foreign substance' (for example a spill) in a business establishment, the injured person must prove the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition and should have taken action to fix it. Constructive knowledge can be shown by circumstantial evidence that the condition existed long enough that the business, using ordinary care, should have known of it, or that the condition happened regularly and was therefore foreseeable. The statute says it does not change any common-law duty of care owed by whoever possesses or controls business premises.

Florida's sovereign immunity waiver statute covers both the State and local governments: 'state agencies or subdivisions' include counties and municipalities. Before suing a city or county, the injured person must present the claim in writing to that city or county within 3 years after the claim accrues (unlike claims against state agencies, a claim against a municipality or county does not also have to be presented to the Department of Financial Services), and the claim must be denied in writing; if there is no final decision within 6 months after filing, the claim is treated as denied. The lawsuit itself must be filed within 4 years after the claim accrues (medical malpractice and wrongful death follow their own deadlines). Recovery is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident; any amount above that can be paid only by a further act of the Legislature, and punitive damages and pre-judgment interest are not allowed.

Florida's recreational use law protects an owner or lessee who opens land, water or park areas to the public for outdoor recreation: the owner owes no duty to keep the area safe or to warn of hazards and is not liable for injuries caused by people using the area. The protection applies only if no charge is made for entry or use and no other revenue is earned from recreational patrons (concession or special-event revenue is allowed only if used exclusively to maintain and improve the area). It does not protect anyone from liability for deliberate, willful or malicious injury to persons or property.

Florida requires motorcycle riders and passengers to wear a helmet meeting federal standard FMVSS 218, and operators must wear eye protection. A rider over 21 may ride without a helmet if covered by an insurance policy providing at least $10,000 in medical benefits for motorcycle-crash injuries. The helmet rule does not apply to riders in an enclosed cab or to riders 16 and older on certain low-power motorcycles (50cc or less, 2 brake horsepower or less, and not able to exceed 30 mph); a violation is a noncriminal nonmoving traffic infraction. The statute does not say whether going without a helmet reduces damages.

Lane splitting is illegal in Florida: the statute says no person may operate a motorcycle between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles, and a motorcyclist may not overtake and pass in the same lane occupied by the vehicle being passed. Police officers and firefighters performing official duties are exempt. Motorcycles are entitled to full use of a lane, may ride no more than two abreast in a single lane, and a violation is a noncriminal moving traffic infraction.

Drivers must stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk at a signalized intersection when the pedestrian has a permitted signal, must stop at crosswalks where signs say so, and where there are no working signals must yield to a pedestrian crossing within a crosswalk who is on the driver's half of the road or approaching so closely from the other half as to be in danger. A pedestrian crossing anywhere other than a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection must yield to all vehicles, may not cross between adjacent signalized intersections except in a marked crosswalk, and may not suddenly leave a curb into the path of a vehicle too close to yield. Every driver must still use due care to avoid hitting a pedestrian.

A person riding a bicycle has the rights and duties of the driver of any other vehicle, and a cyclist riding on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk has the rights and duties of a pedestrian but must yield to pedestrians and give an audible signal before passing them. Drivers must pass a bicycle at a distance of at least 3 feet. Riders and passengers under 16 must wear a bicycle helmet; failing to wear a helmet may not be considered evidence of negligence or contributory negligence.

Uber/Lyft-type (transportation network company, TNC) drivers must carry primary auto insurance that recognizes TNC driving. While the driver is logged on to the app but not on a prearranged ride, the coverage must include liability of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident for death and bodily injury and $25,000 for property damage, plus personal injury protection (PIP) and uninsured/underinsured vehicle coverage. From the start of a prearranged ride, liability coverage of at least $1 million for death, bodily injury and property damage is required, plus PIP at the limousine minimums and uninsured/underinsured coverage. The coverage can come from the driver, the TNC or both, and if the driver's insurance lapses or falls short, the TNC's insurance must cover the claim from the first dollar.

Florida applies the federal motor carrier safety regulations (49 C.F.R. parts 382-386 and 390-397) to owners and drivers of commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce, and to intrastate carriers as those rules existed on December 31, 2023, with state exceptions; for example, intrastate drivers not hauling placarded hazardous materials may drive up to 12 hours after 10 hours off duty and are subject to a 70-hour/7-day or 80-hour/8-day limit. Commercial motor vehicles must carry combined bodily injury and property damage liability of at least $50,000 (26,000 to under 35,000 lbs.), $100,000 (35,000 to under 44,000 lbs.) or $300,000 (44,000 lbs. or more) per occurrence, and vehicles subject to federal financial-responsibility rules must carry the federal minimums (49 C.F.R. part 387).

Florida's workers' compensation law makes the employer's liability for a work injury exclusive, so an injured construction worker's claim against the employer generally goes through workers' comp, while a lawsuit against a negligent third party (someone other than the employer or co-workers) is still allowed. On a construction job, when a contractor sublets work, the employees of the contractor and subcontractors are treated as employed in one business and the contractor must secure compensation for them, except for employees of a subcontractor that has its own coverage; contractors and subcontractors in construction must carry coverage. The scaffold-law question (a special statute making owners or contractors liable for falls) was not verified in this review.