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Key Facts
- Florida state level: Section 324.021 defines proof of financial responsibility and specifies applicable liability limits.
- Florida state level: Personal injury protection generally pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost income within statutory limits and conditions.
- Florida state level: Noneconomic damages from a vehicle crash require one of the injury thresholds in section 627.737.
- Florida state level: In negligence actions covered by section 768.81, a claimant more than 50% at fault cannot recover damages.
- Florida state level: Drivers involved in specified crashes must exchange information, provide reasonable assistance, and report qualifying crashes.
- Florida state level: Florida’s general limitations provision gives two years for an action founded on negligence.
Florida crash law combines no-fault personal injury protection, retained tort liability, comparative fault, roadway duties, and civil filing periods. A national auto accident law overview supplies broader context, while Florida statutes control this state pillar.
Florida requires financial responsibility and PIP
Section 324.021 defines the proof of financial responsibility required for covered motor vehicles. The statute identifies liability limits and authorized forms of proof within its detailed terms.
Section 627.736 provides personal injury protection benefits without regard to fault for covered bodily injury. Subject to the statute’s conditions, PIP pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of disability-related income loss, with a $10,000 benefit limit.
The statute also ties medical benefits to treatment within 14 days after the crash and limits nonemergency treatment benefits to $2,500 unless the statutory emergency-medical-condition requirements are met.
Florida retains tort claims but limits noneconomic damages
Section 627.737 exempts an owner, registrant, operator, or occupant from tort liability for specified noneconomic damages to the extent PIP security applies, unless a statutory threshold is met. The thresholds include significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within reasonable medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.
This threshold concerns noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering. It does not turn every insurance or economic-loss question into a threshold issue.
Comparative fault can reduce or bar damages
Section 768.81 requires a court to enter judgment based on each party’s percentage of fault. For negligence actions to which the statute applies, a party found more than 50% at fault for the party’s own harm may not recover damages.
A claimant at 50% fault or less may have damages reduced according to the assigned percentage. The statute contains exceptions, so its scope must be read from the current text.
Florida law imposes duties at the crash scene
Section 316.062 requires a driver involved in a crash causing injury, death, or damage to an attended vehicle or property to provide specified identifying information. It also requires reasonable assistance to an injured person, including carrying or arranging transportation for treatment when the statutory conditions are present.
Section 316.065 requires immediate notice to local police, the sheriff, or the Florida Highway Patrol when a crash involves injury, death, or apparent vehicle or other property damage of at least $500.
The negligence filing period is generally two years
Section 95.11 provides a two-year period for an action founded on negligence. Other theories, defendants, tolling rules, and accrual provisions can produce different time questions, so the negligence period should not be generalized to every crash-related claim.
The civil limitations period is distinct from immediate crash-scene and reporting duties. Each deadline serves a different legal function.
