Yes. Florida is a no-fault state. After a car accident your own auto insurance pays your first medical bills and lost wages, no matter who caused the crash. That coverage is called PIP, and it is capped at $10,000.
Lawmakers have tried several times to repeal it. As of September 2026, every attempt has failed.
Your own insurance pays first, regardless of who caused the crash. You do not have to prove the other driver was at fault to get your first medical bills covered.
It does not mean nobody is held responsible. No-fault is about who pays first, not who was wrong. Fault still matters. It comes in later, and only if your injuries meet a standard set by statute.
Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law, §§ 627.730–627.7405, Florida Statutes.
Florida PIP pays up to $10,000 total. Within that limit it pays 80% of reasonable and necessary medical bills and 60% of lost wages. A separate $5,000 death benefit sits on top.
Two things people routinely get wrong:
That is the statutory minimum. Your policy may carry a deductible, and you may have purchased more coverage than the minimum. For a serious injury, $10,000 frequently runs out.
§ 627.736(1), Florida Statutes.
Then your PIP medical benefits are capped at $2,500 instead of $10,000.
The full $10,000 in medical benefits is available only if a qualified provider determines you had an emergency medical condition. That determination is made by a medical provider, not by you and not by your insurance company.
§ 627.736(1)(a)4., Florida Statutes.
Yes. Florida PIP medical benefits are reimbursable only if you receive initial services and care within 14 days of the crash. Miss that window and your PIP medical benefits can be lost, even if the crash was entirely the other driver’s fault.
The 14 days run from the date of the accident, not from the date you started hurting. Care must come from a qualifying provider: a medical doctor, an osteopathic physician, a dentist, a chiropractic physician, an advanced practice registered nurse, a hospital-owned facility, or emergency transportation and treatment.
If you have not been seen yet, stop reading and get seen. Spine and soft-tissue injuries often feel minor for the first several days. The deadline does not care how you feel.
§ 627.736(1)(a), Florida Statutes.
Sometimes, but Florida sets a bar you have to clear. You can recover damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience from the at-fault driver only if your injury consists in whole or in part of one of four things.
This is often called the “serious injury” or “permanent injury” threshold. Whether a particular injury meets it turns on the facts and the medical evidence in that case. No website can tell you whether yours qualifies.
More on our Florida auto accident page.
§ 627.737(2), Florida Statutes.
Two years for most negligence claims. This changed in 2023 — it used to be four years. The two-year deadline applies to causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023.
If you are working from older information that says four years, it is out of date, and relying on it could cost you your claim entirely.
Qualifiers that matter:
Do not assume you know your deadline. If you think you may be close to one, contact our office now rather than later.
§ 95.11(5)(a) and § 95.11(5)(e), Florida Statutes; medical malpractice under § 95.11(5)(c); government-entity notice under § 768.28.
Usually, no. Florida requires $10,000 in PIP and $10,000 in property damage liability, but it does not generally require bodily injury liability coverage — the coverage that pays for harm a driver causes to you.
As The Florida Bar puts it, bodily injury liability coverage “is generally not required in Florida.” There are exceptions, including drivers reinstating a license after a DUI-related suspension and vehicles registered as taxis. But the ordinary driver next to you on I-4 may carry no coverage at all for your injuries.
This is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage matters so much in Florida. Your insurer must offer it, and you can only decline it in writing. Check your declarations page. UM/UIM may be the most important coverage in your file.
§ 627.7275 and § 627.727(1), Florida Statutes; Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles insurance requirements.
Rideshare crashes follow the same no-fault rules. PIP pays first, the same 14-day requirement applies, and the same threshold governs a claim against the at-fault driver. What changes is which policies are in play.
Florida law sets different required coverage depending on what the driver’s app was doing at the moment of the crash: offline, logged on and waiting for a request, or carrying a passenger on an accepted ride. Which of those applies can change the analysis considerably.
See our Orlando rideshare accident lawyer page.
§ 627.748, Florida Statutes.
No. Florida did not repeal PIP or the no-fault law in 2026, and there is no repeal on the books with a future effective date.
SB 522 died in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee on March 13, 2026. Its House companion, HB 769, died in the Civil Justice and Claims Subcommittee the same day. A 2025 attempt, HB 1181, died in the Judiciary Committee. A repeal passed the Legislature in 2021 and was vetoed.
A great deal of content online claims Florida repealed PIP. It is wrong. Lawmakers keep returning to this issue, so verify the current rule before relying on anything you read online — this page included.
Yes. Florida is still a no-fault state as of September 2026. The Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law, sections 627.730 through 627.7405 of the Florida Statutes, has not been repealed. Repeal bills filed in 2025 and 2026 both failed. Your own Personal Injury Protection coverage pays your initial medical bills and lost wages regardless of who caused the crash.
Florida requires $10,000 in PIP coverage. Within that limit, PIP pays 80% of reasonable and necessary medical expenses and 60% of lost wages, plus a separate $5,000 death benefit. Medical and wage benefits share the same $10,000 limit — it is not $10,000 for each. This is set by section 627.736(1), Florida Statutes.
Florida law requires you to receive initial medical services and care within 14 days of a motor vehicle accident in order for your PIP medical benefits to be reimbursable. The rule comes from section 627.736(1)(a), Florida Statutes. If you wait longer than 14 days, you can lose PIP medical coverage for that crash, even if the other driver was entirely at fault.
Under section 627.736(1)(a)4., Florida Statutes, PIP medical reimbursement is limited to $2,500 if a qualified provider determines that the injured person did not have an emergency medical condition. The full $10,000 in medical benefits is available only when a provider makes an emergency medical condition determination.
Under section 627.737(2), Florida Statutes, you may recover damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish and inconvenience from an at-fault driver only if your injury involves significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death. Whether an injury meets this threshold depends on the medical evidence in your specific case.
Most negligence claims in Florida must be filed within two years under section 95.11(5)(a), Florida Statutes. This was reduced from four years in 2023 and applies to causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023. Wrongful death is also two years. Medical malpractice and claims involving government entities follow different rules and different deadlines.
Generally no. Florida requires $10,000 in PIP and $10,000 in property damage liability, but bodily injury liability coverage — the coverage that pays for injuries a driver causes to someone else — is generally not required in Florida. Exceptions apply, including for drivers reinstating a license after DUI-related suspensions and for taxis. This is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy is important in Florida.
Talk it through with our office before a deadline decides it for you.
This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts, and the law changes. It reflects Florida law as of September 2026.