Compensation After a Hit-and-Run Driver Flees in Florida

Attorney Answer

You can still be paid even if that driver is never identified. Florida's no-fault benefits do not depend on finding anyone, and uninsured motorist coverage exists for exactly this situation. The urgent things are medical care and a police report, in that order.

The first source is personal injury protection. Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1) requires PIP to reach the named insured, relatives residing in the same household, people operating the insured motor vehicle, passengers, and other people struck by the motor vehicle who were not occupants of a self-propelled vehicle, up to $10,000 in medical and disability benefits and $5,000 in death benefits. It pays without regard to fault, so a driver who fled changes nothing.

But PIP has a hard trigger, and it is the reason to act today. Section 627.736(1)(a) defines the medical benefit as "Eighty percent of all reasonable expenses for medically necessary medical, surgical, X-ray, dental, and rehabilitative services, including prosthetic devices and medically necessary ambulance, hospital, and nursing services if the individual receives initial services and care pursuant to subparagraph 1. within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident." Fourteen days from the crash, not from when the pain worsened. Lost income is covered separately under § 627.736(1)(b) at sixty percent of lost gross income and earning capacity, inside the same $10,000 ceiling.

The second source is uninsured motorist coverage. Fla. Stat. § 627.727(1) requires that no motor vehicle liability policy providing bodily injury coverage be issued in Florida without uninsured motorist coverage, "However, the coverage required under this section is not applicable when, or to the extent that, an insured named in the policy makes a written rejection of the coverage on behalf of all insureds under the policy." So unless someone signed a written rejection, a Florida policy with bodily injury coverage carries UM — yours, or possibly that of a relative you live with. Whether that coverage responds to a driver who was never identified depends on the policy's own terms and its notice conditions, which is why the declarations page and the policy itself are worth getting in hand.

Reporting is not optional and it is not just about the criminal case. Under Fla. Stat. § 316.065(1), a driver involved in a crash resulting in injury to or death of any person, or damage to any vehicle or property in an apparent amount of at least $2,000, must immediately give notice of the crash by the quickest means of communication to the local police department, or otherwise to the county sheriff or the nearest Florida Highway Patrol station. An insurer evaluating an unidentified-vehicle claim looks for that report first.

And the driver who left committed a crime. Leaving the scene of a crash that causes injury is a felony under § 316.027(2), and leaving the scene of a property-damage crash is a second-degree misdemeanor under § 316.061(1); both require the driver to stop and satisfy the duty in § 316.062(1) to give identifying information and render reasonable assistance. If that driver is identified later, a claim against them and their insurer opens up.

What you can do

1. Get medical care now and make sure the record says you were struck by a vehicle. The 14-day PIP window under § 627.736(1)(a) does not extend.

2. Report the crash to law enforcement immediately if you have not, and get the report or case number.

3. Write down everything you remember about the vehicle while it is fresh: color, make, body style, damage, direction of travel, and any part of the plate.

4. Look for cameras — nearby businesses, homes, buses, and traffic cameras — and ask in writing for footage now, because it is overwritten within days.

5. Open a PIP claim, and notify any insurer that might carry uninsured motorist coverage for you or for a relative you live with. Ask each for the declarations page and the policy.

6. Ask a Florida attorney to review the uninsured motorist coverage available to you before you give a recorded statement about the claim.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. For negligence claims arising before March 24, 2023, the former four-year period under the earlier text of § 95.11 applied; a 2023 law changed both that deadline and Florida's shared-fault rule for later accidents, and § 95.11(5)(a) now sets two years. Insurance deadlines are far shorter: the 14-day PIP treatment trigger in § 627.736(1)(a), and the notice and proof requirements an uninsured motorist policy imposes. Which period governs your claim, and from when, depends on your facts and should be checked by a Florida attorney. This page does not calculate any date.