Florida Statute of Limitations: Every Deadline (2026 Guide)

Almost every legal right in Florida comes with an expiration date. Miss it and the strongest case in Miami-Dade becomes unfilable, no matter how clear the liability or how serious the harm. The deadlines changed meaningfully in recent years: HB 837 cut the general negligence period in half in 2023, and the 2025 amendments to the Wrongful Death Act reshaped who can recover. This guide maps the Florida deadlines that matter most to South Florida residents and business owners in 2026, cites the statute behind each one, and explains the doctrines that pause, extend, or quietly shorten the clock. It is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no outcome is promised or predicted.

Quick Answer

• Negligence claims that accrued on or after March 24, 2023 must generally be filed within two years under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(a). Claims that accrued before that date generally kept the older four-year period.
• Wrongful death: generally two years from the date of death under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(d).
• Medical malpractice: generally two years from discovery, with an outer repose limit, under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(b).
• Written contracts: five years. Oral contracts: four years. Fraud: four years from discovery, capped by a twelve-year repose period. Fla. Stat. § 95.11(2) and § 95.11(3).
• Property insurance lawsuits: generally five years, but the policy's own notice deadlines under Fla. Stat. § 627.70132 can kill a claim long before that.
• Claims against a Florida government entity require pre-suit notice under Fla. Stat. § 768.28 before any lawsuit, and that notice has its own deadline.
• Deadlines run from accrual, not from when you decide to hire a lawyer. Waiting to see how an insurance adjuster behaves is the single most common way South Florida claimants lose the right to sue.

What a Statute of Limitations Actually Does

A statute of limitations is a filing deadline. It does not require you to finish your case, settle it, or even complete a demand within the period. It requires that a lawsuit be filed in a court of competent jurisdiction before the clock runs out. Florida collects these deadlines in Chapter 95 of the Florida Statutes, with the core list in Fla. Stat. § 95.11.

Three related ideas often get confused with each other, and the difference matters:

• Accrual: the moment the clock starts. Under Fla. Stat. § 95.031, a cause of action generally accrues when the last element of the claim occurs. For most crashes and slip and falls, that is the date of the incident.
• Statute of repose: an absolute outer wall measured from an event rather than from discovery. Repose can extinguish a claim even if the injured person never knew about the harm. Construction defects and fraud both carry repose periods.
• Condition precedent: a step you must complete before filing, such as pre-suit notice in a medical negligence case or a notice of intent to litigate under Fla. Stat. § 627.70152 for property insurance. These do not replace the limitations period; they compete with it for your remaining time.

The 2023 Change That Catches People Out

House Bill 837, signed March 24, 2023, shortened Florida's general negligence limitations period from four years to two. The change applies to causes of action accruing on or after that date. A Miami crash in 2022 and a Miami crash in 2024 therefore live under different rules, which is why generic online answers about a four year deadline are now unreliable. If your incident sits anywhere near that boundary, the accrual date deserves careful review rather than a guess. Our overview of Florida House Bill 837 walks through the broader changes.

Injury and Accident Deadlines

| Claim type | General deadline | Authority | | --- | --- | --- | | Negligence, accrued on or after 3/24/2023 | 2 years | § 95.11(4)(a) | | Negligence, accrued before 3/24/2023 | 4 years | Prior § 95.11(3)(a) | | Wrongful death | 2 years from death | § 95.11(4)(d) | | Medical malpractice | 2 years from discovery, repose limit applies | § 95.11(4)(b) | | Products liability | Tracks negligence period, repose may apply | § 95.11 and § 95.031(2)(b) | | Intentional torts such as battery | 4 years | § 95.11(3) | | Uninsured motorist benefits | Contract based, commonly 5 years | § 95.11(2)(b) | | PIP benefits | 5 years from the date of the last payment | § 627.736(11) |

Two practical notes. First, an uninsured motorist claim and the underlying negligence claim can have different deadlines, because one sounds in contract and the other in tort. Letting the tort deadline lapse can still damage the coverage claim, since the carrier steps into the shoes of the at fault driver. Second, a claim against a government defendant, such as a county bus or a municipal vehicle, is governed by the notice and waiting requirements of Fla. Stat. § 768.28 and is materially shorter in practical terms than a private claim.

Contract, Business, and Property Deadlines

| Claim type | General deadline | Authority | | --- | --- | --- | | Written contract | 5 years | § 95.11(2)(b) | | Oral contract | 4 years | § 95.11(3)(k) | | Action on a judgment or decree of a court of record | 20 years | § 95.11(1) | | Fraud | 4 years from discovery, 12 year repose | § 95.11(3)(j) and § 95.031(2)(a) | | Breach of fiduciary duty | 4 years | § 95.11(3) | | Trespass or damage to real property | 4 years | § 95.11(3)(g) | | Construction defect, latent | Measured under the repose framework | § 95.11(3)(c) | | Consumer debt on a written agreement | 5 years | § 95.11(2)(b) |

Debt collection deserves its own warning, because it is one of the most searched Florida deadline questions. A time barred debt does not disappear. Collectors may still contact you about it, and in some circumstances a payment or a written acknowledgment can restart the period. If a collector contacts you about an old account, the safest step is to request written validation before saying anything about payment.

Insurance Claim Deadlines Are Not the Same Thing

Property insurance is where South Florida policyholders get hurt most often, because two different clocks run at once. The lawsuit clock for breach of a written policy is generally five years. The claim reporting clock is far shorter: under Fla. Stat. § 627.70132, notice of a property insurance claim must be given within one year of the date of loss, and a supplemental or reopened claim within eighteen months, for claims subject to the current version of the statute. Hurricane and windstorm losses in Miami-Dade routinely fail on this notice rule rather than on the limitations period.

Separately, Fla. Stat. § 627.70152 requires a written notice of intent to litigate before filing suit on most residential and commercial property insurance claims, with a mandatory waiting period after it is served. Building that pre-suit step into your calendar is not optional. If your claim was already denied, our guide to a denied homeowners insurance claim explains the sequence.

What Pauses or Extends the Clock

• Delayed discovery: for a narrow set of claims, including fraud, medical malpractice, and certain products cases, the period runs from when the harm was or should have been discovered rather than when it occurred. Florida applies this narrowly, and it does not save an ordinary crash claim.
• Minority: Fla. Stat. § 95.051 addresses tolling, and claims belonging to a minor child are treated differently from a parent's own claim arising out of the same event.
• Defendant absent from the state or concealing identity: tolling can apply under § 95.051(1) in limited circumstances.
• Estate administration: in a wrongful death case the personal representative must be appointed before suit, which consumes calendar time inside a two year window.
• Written standstill or tolling agreements: sometimes used in commercial disputes, and only effective if properly drafted and signed.

Florida courts read tolling provisions strictly. The statutory list in § 95.051 is treated as exclusive, so informal excuses such as ongoing settlement talks, a cooperative adjuster, or continuing medical treatment do not extend anything.

A Realistic South Florida Timeline

Consider a two year negligence deadline for a Coral Gables intersection crash. Medical treatment and a stable diagnosis often take six to twelve months. Requesting complete records from several providers takes another one to three months. A demand package and insurer evaluation typically consume sixty to ninety days, and Florida's civil remedy notice process for bad faith adds sixty more when it applies. That sequence alone can occupy eighteen months of a twenty four month window before anyone drafts a complaint. This is why the practical deadline for meeting with a lawyer is far earlier than the statutory one.

Case Study Style Illustration

A hypothetical: a Hialeah driver is rear ended in April 2024, treats for eight months, and negotiates with the carrier through 2025 while the adjuster asks for repeated supplements. In March 2026 the offer is withdrawn. Because the claim accrued after March 24, 2023, the two year period under § 95.11(4)(a) expired in April 2026, and the negotiation history did not toll anything. The claim is worth nothing in court, regardless of the medical evidence. Nothing about this illustration predicts any actual outcome, and every case turns on its own facts.

Deadline Checklist

1. Write down the exact incident date, not the month. 2. Identify the claim type, because a single event can create several claims with different deadlines. 3. Ask whether any defendant is a government entity, a hospital, a design professional, or an insurer, since each adds a pre-suit step. 4. Report insurance claims immediately, in writing, and keep the confirmation. 5. Preserve evidence early. Video from a Miami business is often overwritten in days. 6. Calendar a personal review date at least six months before the statutory deadline. 7. Get the deadline confirmed by a Florida lawyer rather than an online summary, including this one.

Official Sources

• Fla. Stat. § 95.11, limitations of actions
• Fla. Stat. § 95.031, computation of time
• Fla. Stat. § 95.051, tolling
• Fla. Stat. § 768.28, sovereign immunity and notice
• Fla. Stat. § 627.70132, notice of property insurance claim
• Florida Courts, self help resources
• The Florida Bar

Talk to The Farber Law Firm

The Farber Law Firm is located at 2199 Ponce de Leon Blvd #301, Coral Gables, FL 33134, and represents clients across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties in personal injury and insurance coverage matters. Consultations for injury and property claim matters are free, and injury cases are handled on a contingency basis, meaning there is no attorney fee unless there is a recovery. If you are unsure which deadline applies to your situation, the fastest way to find out is to ask before the calendar decides for you. Call 888-832-7237 or use the contact form.

This article is general information about Florida law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines depend on facts that vary from case to case, and statutes change. Consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific circumstances.