Fault and PIP Benefits After a Left-Turn Collision

Attorney Answer

A driver who turns left across oncoming traffic normally carries most of the fault, and an officer who watched it happen is about the best witness a claim can have — but in Florida your first medical bills still go through your own no-fault coverage, not the other driver's insurer. Those are two different tracks, and confusing them is the most common way people lose time after a crash like this.

Start with the no-fault track. Personal injury protection pays 80 percent of reasonable and necessary medical expenses and 60 percent of lost income, subject to a $10,000 limit, regardless of who caused the crash. It also carries a deadline that has ended more claims than any fault argument. Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1)(a) provides: "Medical benefits. — 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." If you have not been seen by a qualifying provider within 14 days of the crash, PIP benefits are at risk no matter how clear the other driver's fault is.

Next, the fault track. The right-of-way rule for a left turn across oncoming traffic is a traffic statute, and the general principle is the part worth holding on to: a driver turning left must yield to oncoming traffic that is close enough to be a hazard. A responding officer's observations and the crash report are powerful evidence of that, though a report is not itself the legal decision — insurers and juries reach their own conclusions.

Expect the other side to look for a share of fault anyway: your speed, your attention, whether you could have avoided the impact. Florida divides fault by percentage under Fla. Stat. § 768.81, and which version applies depends on when your crash happened. For accidents before March 24, 2023, a claimant's own percentage reduced the recovery proportionately and barred it at no percentage. For accidents on or after that date, the same proportional reduction applies, but a party found more than 50 percent at fault for their own harm recovers nothing. Which regime governs your crash is a lawyer's question, not one to settle here.

Finally, what you can actually recover from the at-fault driver. Florida gates pain-and-suffering damages behind a threshold in Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2): the injury must consist, 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. Economic losses — medical bills beyond PIP and lost wages — are not gated by that threshold. Both halves are true at once, and both depend on medical documentation you build now.

What you can do

1. If you have not already been examined, see a doctor now. Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1)(a) conditions PIP medical benefits on receiving initial services and care within 14 days of the crash.

2. Open a PIP claim with your own auto insurer and give it your treating providers' information.

3. Request the crash report from the agency the responding officer worked for, and note the officer's name and unit from it.

4. Keep every bill, explanation of benefits, out-of-pocket receipt and record of missed work in one place.

5. Ask a Florida lawyer before giving the other driver's insurer a recorded statement or signing any medical authorization it sends you.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts with someone who can hear the whole story is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Fla. Stat. § 95.11 sets the negligence deadline, and the period turns on your accident date: two years under § 95.11(5)(a) for claims accruing on or after March 24, 2023, and the former four-year period for earlier crashes. The 14-day PIP treatment rule in § 627.736(1)(a) runs much faster than either, and your own policy adds notice terms of its own. Nothing here calculates your dates — have a Florida attorney check them against your facts.