Recovering Serious Injury Damages From an Uninsured Driver

Attorney Answer

Your daughter is not out of options, and this was not her mistake — Florida simply does not require most private drivers to carry any bodily injury coverage before a crash. The recovery in a case like hers usually comes from somewhere other than the at-fault driver's own liability policy, and finding those sources early is the whole job.

Here is what Florida actually requires. Fla. Stat. § 324.022(1) provides: "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." That, plus the personal injury protection coverage Florida separately requires, is the pre-crash mandate. The familiar 10/20/10 figures come from § 324.021(7): proof of financial responsibility required after a crash or a judgment, not insurance every driver already has.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is usually the answer. Section 627.727(1) requires uninsured motorist coverage in every Florida policy that provides bodily injury liability coverage, for insureds legally entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an uninsured vehicle — unless it is rejected. The statute says: "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." So: does she have her own policy, is she a resident relative on a household policy, and what coverage was on the car she occupied? More than one policy can respond. Pull the declarations pages.

PIP comes first for medical bills. Under § 627.736(1) the required benefits reach up to $10,000 in medical and disability benefits, paying 60 percent of lost income and, under § 627.736(1)(a), "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."

The tort threshold gates only part of the claim. Section 627.737(2) allows recovery for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience only where the injury consists in whole or in part of a significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability other than scarring or disfigurement, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death. Economic damages — medical bills beyond PIP, future care, lost income — are not gated by it.

Ask who owned the car. If the at-fault driver borrowed someone else's vehicle, Florida's dangerous instrumentality doctrine, which comes from court decisions rather than statute, generally makes an owner responsible for a permissive driver's negligent operation. Section 324.021(9)(b)3. then caps a natural-person owner who loaned the vehicle at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for bodily injury and $50,000 for property damage — and adds up to $500,000 in economic damages where the permissive user was uninsured or carried less than $500,000 combined. The owner's own negligence is outside the cap, and the cap does not apply to owners using vehicles in commercial activity.

What you can do

1. Open the PIP claim with the insurer of the vehicle she occupied, if it is not already open.

2. Collect the declarations page of every auto policy in her household, in any household where she is a resident relative, and on the car she was in, and put them in front of one lawyer.

3. Get the crash report and find the registered owner of the at-fault vehicle. If the driver did not own it, the owner's insurance enters the case.

4. Keep every medical record, bill and out-of-pocket receipt, and a record of work she has missed.

5. Do not sign a release or accept any settlement from any insurer until a lawyer has reviewed it. With injuries at this level, an early release closes doors that cannot be reopened. 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. A Florida negligence claim runs under Fla. Stat. § 95.11, and which period applies depends on the date of the crash: for accidents before March 24, 2023, the former four-year period applied, and the Legislature shortened the period for later accidents. An uninsured motorist claim is a contract claim that can run on a different clock and carries its own notice conditions. Do not take a date from this page; have a Florida attorney confirm every deadline against her facts.