Evaluating an Insurance Settlement Offer After a Florida Crash

Attorney Answer

No one can tell you whether that offer is good, and anyone who gives you a number without seeing your records is guessing. What can be done is to show you the framework that decides it — and to flag that a settlement offer arriving early is usually an offer to close the claim before anyone knows what your injury actually is.

First, know which pot the money is coming from. Your own personal injury protection coverage pays first and regardless of fault. Section 627.736(1) provides a limit of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits, with medical benefits at "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," and lost income at 60 percent under § 627.736(1)(b). An offer from the other driver's insurer is a separate thing from PIP. Whether the number you were given is meant to sit on top of PIP or to absorb bills PIP already covered is a question to ask in writing before anything else.

Second, know what Florida lets you recover from the at-fault driver. There are two categories and they are treated differently. Economic losses — medical charges beyond what PIP paid, the 40 percent of income PIP does not pay, future treatment — are recoverable without any special showing. Pain and suffering is gated. Section 627.737(2) allows a plaintiff to "recover damages in tort for pain, suffering, mental anguish, and inconvenience because of bodily injury, sickness, or disease arising out of the ownership, maintenance, operation, or use of such motor vehicle only in the event that the injury or disease consists in whole or in part of: (a) Significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function. (b) Permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement. (c) Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement. (d) Death." Whether your injury meets that threshold is a medical opinion, and it is often not knowable in the first weeks after a crash.

Third, fault. If the insurer contends you share any of the blame, that reduces what you recover — and how it does so depends on when the crash happened, because Florida changed the rule in 2023. For accidents before March 24, 2023, comparative fault reduced damages in proportion and did not bar recovery at any percentage. For accidents on or after that date, § 768.81 both reduces damages proportionally and bars recovery entirely for a party found more than 50 percent at fault for their own harm, except in medical negligence cases. Which rule governs a particular crash is a lawyer's question.

The practical risk here is the release. Vehicle damage and bodily injury are usually settled on separate paperwork. A release of the injury claim is permanent: it covers the treatment you have not had yet, the imaging nobody has ordered, and the surgery nobody has mentioned. That is why the timing of an offer matters as much as the amount.

What you can do

1. Ask the adjuster, in writing, to break the offer down — how much is for the vehicle, how much for injury — and to send you the exact release each part requires.

2. Add up your own numbers: every bill, what PIP has paid, what you paid out of pocket, and the wages you lost with written confirmation from your employer.

3. Ask your treating provider whether you are finished treating or whether more care is expected, and get that in the record.

4. Confirm your first treatment fell within 14 days of the crash, and open or continue your PIP claim so those bills are not sitting unpaid.

5. Take the offer and the release to a Florida attorney before you sign or reject anything. Whether to settle, and for what, is a legal choice with no undo button, and it is the one decision on this page that should not be made from general information.

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. The PIP treatment window in § 627.736(1)(a) is 14 days from the crash. The deadline to bring a claim against the at-fault driver keys to your accident date: for a negligence claim accruing before March 24, 2023, the former four-year period under § 95.11 applied; for one accruing on or after that date, § 95.11(5)(a) sets two years. Nothing about an open settlement negotiation extends either. Have a Florida attorney confirm the dates on your facts before you rely on having time.