How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Florida?

The two-year rule and where it came from

Florida's statute of limitations for negligence lived at four years for decades. House Bill 837, signed March 24, 2023, cut that period in half. Any negligence cause of action that accrued on or after March 24, 2023 must be filed within two years under Fla. Stat. 95.11(4)(a). Causes of action that accrued before that date keep the old four-year window, so the date of your crash or fall, not the date you hire a lawyer, controls which rule applies.

The deadline is a filing deadline, not a settlement deadline. Sending a demand letter, opening a claim with an adjuster, or negotiating for months does nothing to stop the clock. If the limitations period runs while a claim sits with an insurer, the claim is generally extinguished and the carrier has no reason to pay anything.

Deadlines that are shorter than two years

• Government defendants: a claim against the State of Florida, Miami-Dade County, the City of Coral Gables, a school board or a transit authority requires presuit written notice to the agency and to the Department of Financial Services under Fla. Stat. 768.28(6), and the agency gets 180 days to respond before suit may be filed.
• Cruise lines and vessels: most passenger tickets sailing from PortMiami contain a contractual one-year suit limitation and a six-month written notice requirement, enforceable under 46 U.S.C. 30527 and long-standing federal case law.
• Medical malpractice: a two-year period under Fla. Stat. 95.11(4)(b) runs from discovery, capped by a four-year repose, plus the Chapter 766 presuit investigation and 90-day tolling process.
• PIP benefits: your own no-fault benefits require initial medical care within 14 days of a motor vehicle crash under Fla. Stat. 627.736(1)(a).
• Uninsured motorist and property claims: policy language often imposes notice and suit conditions well shorter than the statute.

When the clock can be paused

Florida recognizes limited tolling. The period may be tolled while a defendant is absent from the state, during a plaintiff's legal incapacity, for minors in specific circumstances, and during statutorily required presuit periods such as Chapter 766 for malpractice or Chapter 558 for construction defects. The delayed-discovery doctrine applies narrowly in Florida and is not a general safety net for ordinary crash or premises cases.

Because tolling is fact-dependent and courts construe it strictly, the practical rule for anyone injured in Miami-Dade is to treat the earliest arguable date of injury as day one and to have the file evaluated long before month twenty-three. Evidence also degrades: surveillance video at a Coral Gables retail property is often overwritten in 14 to 30 days, and crash scene conditions change within hours.

What to do inside the window

• Get medical care within 14 days to preserve PIP eligibility, and follow through with treatment so the record reflects the injury.
• Request the Florida Traffic Crash Report through the FLHSMV crash portal; the long-form report is restricted for 60 days under Fla. Stat. 316.066(2).
• Send preservation letters for video, telematics, and event data recorder information before it is destroyed.
• Identify every layer of coverage: bodily injury liability, uninsured motorist, resident-relative policies, umbrella coverage, and commercial policies where a vehicle was used for work.
• Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's carrier before the claim is evaluated.