Liability When a Repair Shop's Work Causes a Crash

Attorney Answer

The shop that sent you out with lug nuts that were not tightened is the one that caused this, and that is where the claim belongs — for your vehicle, for the other car, and for what has happened to you since. And "he didn't put on that tire, the other guy did" is not a defense. A business answers for the work its employees do.

The law here is ordinary negligence rather than a statute: a business that performs work carelessly is answerable for the harm that work causes. A wheel that comes off a block from the shop that just mounted it, with the nuts missing, is about as direct a chain as these cases get. What decides it is evidence, and most of that evidence is sitting in your driveway right now.

Two claims are moving at once. The other driver whose car was struck will look to you, because you were the one driving — that is how it normally starts, whatever the real cause was. You in turn look to the shop, both for your own damage and for what you have to answer to the other driver for. Your own insurer can pursue the shop as well. So report this to your insurance company and give them the shop's name; that is not admitting fault, it is putting a company to work on your side.

If your own care in some way is questioned, the date decides the rule. For accidents before March 24, 2023, Fla. Stat. § 768.81(2) provided: "In a negligence action, contributory fault chargeable to the claimant diminishes proportionately the amount awarded as economic and noneconomic damages for an injury attributable to the claimant's contributory fault, but does not bar recovery." That was pure comparative fault — a share of blame cut the award and barred nothing. The Legislature changed the rule in 2023 for later accidents; which version reaches an older crash is a lawyer's question, not a page's. Nothing in what you describe suggests any fault on your part.

For what stands behind the property damage, Fla. Stat. § 324.022(1) requires every Florida owner or operator to be able to respond in damages of $10,000 for damage to, or destruction of, the property of others in any one crash. A business like a tire shop generally carries considerably more than that, which matters here.

About the sleep and the fear. Tell a doctor about it, and do it soon — Florida's no-fault benefits pay 80 percent of reasonable medical expenses only if a person receives initial services and care within 14 days after the crash, under Fla. Stat. § 627.736(1)(a). That window applies to any care you may need from this, and what you are describing is worth being seen for.

What you can do

1. Do not let anyone throw away or replace the wheel, the tire, the remaining lug nuts, or the studs. Bag them and keep them. This is the most important thing on this list.

2. Photograph everything today: the wheel and hub, the studs, the damage to your SUV, the other car, and the road where it happened.

3. Find the invoice and the work order from that morning, and keep the card or bank record showing you paid.

4. Write down the name of the shop and get the crash report number from the responding agency.

5. Report the crash to your own insurer and tell them the wheel came off after the shop's work.

6. See a doctor within 14 days if you have any physical symptoms, and tell them about the sleeplessness too.

7. Do not sign anything the shop offers you, and do not accept a repair or a payment in exchange for a release, before a lawyer sees it.

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

⏱ Time limits apply. Florida's limitations statute is Fla. Stat. § 95.11. For a crash before March 24, 2023, a negligence claim ran under the former four-year period; the Legislature shortened the negligence period in 2023 for later accidents, and whether the old period or the new reaches an older crash is a question for a Florida attorney on your actual dates. I am not going to compute a deadline from a few lines of text. Take the real dates to a lawyer, sooner than feels necessary.