First Steps After a Serious-Injury Florida Car Crash

Attorney Answer

Two clocks started the day of that crash. One runs for 14 days and controls your own no-fault benefits. The other runs much longer and controls a claim against whoever caused it. People miss the 14-day one.

Florida is a no-fault state for first-dollar medical coverage, which means your own auto policy pays first no matter who caused the crash. Under Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1), personal injury protection covers the named insured, resident relatives, people operating the insured vehicle, passengers and pedestrians struck by it, up to a limit of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits. The medical half, under § 627.736(1)(a), is "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." A trauma admission clears that trigger, but the claim still has to be opened and billed correctly. The statute also sets a lower ceiling where no emergency medical condition is diagnosed.

Ten thousand dollars does not go far against a trauma admission and facial fracture repairs. Everything above it — the rest of the bills, lost income, and pain and suffering — comes from a claim against the driver who caused the crash, and from your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage if you have it. That last point matters more in Florida than people expect: Fla. Stat. § 324.022(1) provides that "Every owner or operator of a motor vehicle required to be registered in this state shall establish and maintain the ability to respond in damages for liability on account of accidents arising out of the use of the motor vehicle in the amount of $10,000 because of damage to, or destruction of, property of others in any one crash." Property damage, not bodily injury. Florida does not require most private drivers to carry bodily injury liability coverage at all, so the at-fault driver may have nothing to pay an injury claim with. Uninsured motorist coverage under Fla. Stat. § 627.727(1) is part of a Florida bodily-injury policy unless a named insured rejected it in writing — check your own policy for that rejection before you assume you have none.

For pain and suffering there is one more gate. Fla. Stat. § 627.737(2) permits recovery in tort of those damages only in defined circumstances: "a plaintiff may 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." Multiple facial fractures often involve permanent injury or significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement — but that is a medical opinion your treating doctors have to give, not something the injury description supplies by itself. Your economic losses beyond PIP are not gated by that threshold.

What you can do

1. Tell the hospital and every treating provider that this was a motor vehicle crash and give them your auto insurer's name and claim number, so the bills route to PIP first.

2. Open the PIP claim with your own auto insurer, or with the insurer of the vehicle you were in, and confirm the claim number in writing.

3. Ask your insurer, in writing, for a copy of your policy declarations page and whether you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and at what limits.

4. Keep every bill, explanation of benefits, discharge summary and receipt, and get a copy of the crash report from the investigating agency.

5. Do not give the other driver's insurer a recorded statement, and do not sign a release or a medical authorization from that insurer, before a Florida attorney has looked at the case.

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

⏱ Time limits apply. The deadline for a claim against the at-fault driver comes from Fla. Stat. § 95.11. For a crash before March 24, 2023, a negligence claim ran on the former four-year period; the Legislature shortened it to two years in 2023 for later accidents, and which version reaches an older crash is a lawyer's question. PIP and uninsured motorist coverage carry their own, much shorter notice deadlines. Do not calculate any date yourself. Have a Florida attorney check every clock now.