Sued for More Than You Can Pay After a Crash

Attorney Answer

The best next step is not to answer this yourself. Send everything to your auto insurer today, and if you have been served with court papers, say so specifically and immediately — court deadlines run from the date you were served and they are short.

Start with what has actually happened. A demand letter asking for $50,000 is a request, not a judgment, and it does not mean you owe that. What matters more than the number is what liability coverage you have, because its first job is to stand between you and this claim.

It is worth knowing what Florida requires and what it does not. 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 for most private cars; there is no general bodily-injury liability minimum. The 10/20/10 figures found online come from § 324.021(7), the post-crash proof-of-financial-responsibility track, not what you already carry. So the real question is what you bought, and the answer is on your declarations page.

Second, "found at fault" is not the end of it. An officer's opinion, or an insurer's early call, does not bind a court, and Florida divides fault among everyone who contributed — the other driver's own share reduces what they recover. Which version of that rule governs depends on when the crash happened. For accidents on or after March 24, 2023, § 768.81(2) provides that contributory fault "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, subject to subsection (6)," and § 768.81(6) bars recovery entirely for a party found more than 50 percent at fault for their own harm. For accidents before that date, the rule was pure comparative fault: § 768.81(2) then provided that contributory fault "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," with no percentage bar at all. The Legislature made that change in 2023. Which regime governs your crash is a question for a lawyer, not for a page.

Third, a judgment larger than your coverage is exactly where your interests and your insurer's can pull apart. Florida has a statute addressing insurer conduct, § 624.155, and it carries a condition precedent in § 624.155(3)(a): "As a condition precedent to bringing an action under this section, the department and the authorized insurer must have been given 60 days' written notice of the violation." Filing that notice is a legal step with consequences. Do not file one on your own; that decision belongs to a lawyer who has read your policy.

What you can do

1. Send the demand letter, and every other paper you have received, to your auto insurer today. Keep proof of the date you sent it.

2. If you have been served with a summons and complaint, tell your insurer that in the same message and mark it urgent. A missed court deadline can cost far more than the claim itself.

3. Ask your insurer for your declarations page so you know your bodily-injury and property-damage limits.

4. Keep everything — photographs, the crash report, every letter. Delete nothing.

5. Do not sign anything, agree to any payment plan, or give a recorded statement to the other side's lawyer or insurer.

6. Ask a local lawyer whether you should have your own attorney alongside the one your insurer appoints, particularly if the demand exceeds your limits.

7. 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. Two different clocks matter here. If you have been sued, the deadline to respond in court runs from service and is measured in days, not years — that one is urgent. Separately, the deadline for the underlying negligence claim keys to the accident date: for accidents on or after March 24, 2023, Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) allows two years for an action founded on negligence, and for accidents before that date the former four-year period under § 95.11 applied. Have a Florida attorney check both against your papers. This page does not calculate any date for you.