Car insurance claims in Florida

Florida runs its motor-vehicle injury claims through a no-fault scheme. Sections 627.730 to 627.7405 are named the Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law, and every complying policy must carry personal injury protection of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits and $5,000 in death benefits (§ 627.736(1)). Medical benefits are paid at eighty percent of reasonable expenses, and only if the injured person receives initial services and care within fourteen days of the accident. That fourteen-day window is the single hardest deadline a Florida driver faces after a crash, and it is missed more often than any court deadline on this page, because it falls due while the paperwork is still being sorted out.

Suing the other driver for pain and suffering is possible only past a verbal threshold. Under § 627.737(1) an insured driver is exempt from tort liability to the extent that PIP benefits are payable; § 627.737(2) lifts that exemption where the injury consists in whole or in part of significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability other than scarring or disfigurement, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death. Where the threshold is crossed, shared fault is handled by § 768.81: damages fall in proportion to the claimant’s own fault, and a party found more than fifty percent at fault for their own harm recovers nothing (§ 768.81(6), added by ch. 2023-15).

An action founded on negligence must be brought within two years (§ 95.11(5)(a)), a period the same 2023 chapter law reached. An action for taking, detaining or injuring personal property carries four years (§ 95.11(3)(g)); which of the two governs a claim for vehicle damage is a question the statute does not answer on its face, so this page assumes the shorter one. An action on the policy itself, as a written contract, runs five years (§ 95.11(2)(b)). Notice to your own insurer is a policy obligation and falls due far sooner than any of these.

Three insurer clocks are worth knowing. PIP benefits are overdue if not paid within thirty days after the insurer is given written notice of the loss and its amount (§ 627.736(4)(b)). A settlement agreed in writing must be paid within twenty days, after which it carries twelve percent interest (§ 627.4265). And failing to affirm or deny coverage within thirty days of a written request made after proofs of loss are complete is listed as an unfair claim settlement practice when done often enough to be a general business practice (§ 626.9541(1)(i)3.e). On cover: property damage liability of $10,000 is required of every registered owner, or a $30,000 combined single limit instead (§ 324.022(1)); uninsured motorist coverage sits in every bodily injury policy unless a named insured rejects it in writing (§ 627.727(1)). Any crash causing injury, death or apparent damage of $500 or more must be reported to police immediately by the quickest means (§ 316.065(1)). Consumer complaints about an insurer go to the Department of Financial Services, not the Office of Insurance Regulation.