Rear-Ended by a Driver Who Gave False Insurance Information

Attorney Answer

Your realistic recovery here runs through your own policy: personal injury protection for the medical bills, and uninsured motorist coverage for what is left. A driver with no insurance usually has nothing worth collecting, and the plate mismatch matters mainly because it may point to a vehicle owner who does.

First, why this happens so often. Fla. Stat. § 324.022(1) requires an owner or operator to be able to respond in damages of $10,000 for damage to the property of others in any one crash. That, plus personal injury protection, is what Florida requires before a crash for most private cars. There is no general bodily-injury liability minimum. Uninsured drivers are common here, and the law does not fix that for you afterward.

Second, your own coverage. Section 627.736(1) requires personal injury protection up to a limit of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits, paid regardless of fault, and § 627.736(1)(a) conditions the medical half on this: "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 you found out the other driver had lied.

Beyond PIP, uninsured motorist coverage is the point. Section 627.727(1) requires UM coverage in every Florida policy providing bodily-injury liability coverage, with one exception stated in the statute itself: "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." If nobody signed that rejection, you likely have UM, and this is what it is for.

Third, the plates. If the car belonged to someone other than the driver, that owner may be a source of recovery. Florida's dangerous instrumentality doctrine, which is judge-made rather than statutory, generally holds a vehicle owner responsible for the negligent operation of the vehicle by someone driving it with permission. The Legislature capped that exposure for private lenders in § 324.021(9)(b)3.: an owner who is a natural person and loans a vehicle to a permissive user "shall be liable for the operation of the vehicle or the acts of the operator in connection therewith only up to $100,000 per person and up to $300,000 per incident for bodily injury and up to $50,000 for property damage," with up to an additional $500,000 in economic damages if the permissive user is uninsured or carries less than $500,000 combined. The cap does not cover an owner's own negligence and does not apply to commercial owners. Whether it fits your facts is a lawyer's question.

On the false insurance information: give it to your own insurer and to the investigating agency, and leave it there.

Finally, Florida law generally presumes the following driver in a rear-end collision was negligent, and that presumption can be rebutted. It is a starting point in your favor, not a guarantee.

What you can do

1. Open a PIP claim with your own insurer and get medically evaluated. Under § 627.736(1)(a), PIP medical benefits require initial services and care within 14 days of the crash.

2. Ask your insurer for your declarations page and confirm whether you carry uninsured motorist coverage and at what limits.

3. Request the crash report. Section 316.066(1)(b) requires the long-form report to name the parties, vehicles, witnesses and insurance companies, and § 316.066(1)(d) requires each party to give the officer proof of insurance, documented in the report.

4. Keep the plate number you recorded, your photographs, and anything you were handed at the scene. Delete nothing.

5. Ask a local lawyer about a claim against the vehicle's registered owner and how it fits with a UM claim.

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

⏱ Time limits apply. A claim from a crash is a negligence claim, and in Florida the deadline depends on the date of the accident. For accidents on or after March 24, 2023, Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) allows two years for an action founded on negligence. For accidents before that date, the former four-year period under § 95.11 applied. Which one covers you turns on when the crash happened, and other facts can change the answer. Have a Florida attorney read the dates on your file before you rely on any of this. This page does not calculate your deadline.