By Jay Wasserman
It is one of the first questions every injured person asks, and one of the few in personal injury law with a hard answer: how long do I have? In Florida, for most injury claims, the answer is now two years, and for some claims it is effectively much less. Miss the deadline and it does not matter how badly you were hurt, how clear the other side’s fault is, or how strong your evidence looks. The case is over before it starts.
A word of caution before anything else: the statute of limitations is only the last deadline, not the only one. Florida’s no-fault system requires medical treatment within 14 days of a car crash to preserve PIP benefits. Claims against a city, county, or state agency require formal written notice long before any lawsuit. Medical malpractice claims must go through a mandatory pre-suit process that takes months to complete. Evidence has its own clock too: surveillance video is overwritten, vehicles are repaired or scrapped, and witnesses move. People who wait until month twenty-three of a twenty-four-month window often find that the courthouse is still open but the proof is gone.
This guide walks through Florida’s injury deadlines as they stand today, the shorter clocks hiding inside them, and the narrow exceptions that can extend, or quietly shorten, your time.
The general rule: two years for negligence claims
Florida rewrote its limitations law in 2023. House Bill 837 cut the statute of limitations for general negligence claims from four years to two years, codified in Fla. Stat. § 95.11. The change applies to causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023, which by now means essentially every new case.
Two years covers the heart of personal injury practice:
- Car, truck, and motorcycle accidents
- Slip, trip, and fall injuries on someone else’s property
- Pedestrian and bicycle accidents
- Negligent security claims arising from crimes that adequate security should have prevented
- Dog bites and most other negligence-based injuries
The clock generally starts on the date of the injury. If you were hurt in a crash on July 10, 2026, your negligence lawsuit generally must be filed, not merely threatened or negotiated, by July 10, 2028.
Hypothetically: a Boca Raton shopper slips on an unmarked wet floor and injures her back. She spends a year and a half treating, then months trading letters with the store’s insurer, who seems cooperative. The adjuster’s final lowball offer arrives twenty-five months after the fall. If no lawsuit was filed, the claim is gone, and the insurer knew the calendar all along. Negotiation does not stop the clock. Only filing suit does.
Deadlines that are shorter than you think
Wrongful death: two years. When an injury proves fatal, the personal representative must bring a wrongful death claim within two years of the date of death under Fla. Stat. § 95.11. The grief of the first year makes this window feel shorter than it reads on paper.
Medical malpractice: two years, plus a mandatory detour. A medical malpractice claim must be brought within two years of when the malpractice was discovered or should have been discovered, subject to a four-year outer limit (the statute of repose) that runs from the incident itself, extended to seven years only where fraud or concealment by the provider is shown, with special protections for young children. Before filing, Florida’s pre-suit screening process under Chapter 766 requires a corroborating medical expert opinion and a ninety-day investigation period. That process takes real time to do properly, which means a malpractice case brought to a lawyer near the deadline may be impossible to rescue.
Claims against the government: notice first. If your injury involves a government defendant, a city bus, a county-maintained intersection, a public hospital, a school board, Fla. Stat. § 768.28 requires written pre-suit notice to the agency and the Florida Department of Financial Services, and the agency gets an investigation period before suit can be filed. Sovereign immunity also caps recoveries, currently $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, absent a legislative claims bill. These claims are procedural minefields, and the notice requirement is unforgiving.
No-fault benefits: 14 days. After a car accident, Florida’s PIP statute, Fla. Stat. § 627.736, requires initial medical treatment within 14 days of the crash to preserve your no-fault benefits. This is not a filing deadline, but it is the first clock that starts running, and missing it costs real money. Our guide to what to do after a car accident in Florida covers this in detail.
Exceptions that can extend the deadline
Florida law tolls, or pauses, the limitations period in limited circumstances under Fla. Stat. § 95.051, and a few doctrines shift when the clock starts:
- Minors. Children cannot file suit themselves, and special rules can extend deadlines for claims belonging to minors, particularly in medical malpractice. But the extensions are narrower than most parents assume, and a parent’s own derivative claims may not be extended at all. Never assume a child’s claim can wait.
- Delayed discovery. For certain claims, notably medical malpractice and fraud-based claims, the clock runs from when the injury or its wrongful cause was or reasonably should have been discovered, not the date it happened. Florida courts apply this doctrine narrowly.
- Defendant’s absence or concealment. Time can be tolled while a defendant is out of state, hiding, or using a false name such that service is impossible.
- Incapacity. Adjudicated incapacity existing before the claim arose can pause the clock, subject to strict outer limits.
Treat every exception as a lifeline for emergencies, not a plan. Courts construe them against the person invoking them, and betting your case on a tolling argument is a bet you make only when there is no alternative.
Why waiting hurts even when you are “within the deadline”
The statute of limitations tells you when your case dies. It says nothing about when your case gets weaker, and that begins almost immediately:
- Evidence disappears. Store surveillance systems overwrite footage in days or weeks. Vehicle damage gets repaired. Skid marks fade. The dangerous condition that caused a fall is fixed the next morning.
- Witnesses scatter. Memories fade fast, and in Florida, witnesses move away faster.
- Treatment gaps get used against you. Insurers argue that delayed or interrupted medical care means the injury was minor or unrelated. Under Florida’s modified comparative negligence rule, Fla. Stat. § 768.81, a plaintiff found more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing, so every evidentiary edge matters.
- Pre-suit work takes time. Identifying every defendant and every insurance policy, preserving evidence with spoliation letters, and completing any required pre-suit process cannot be done well in the final weeks before a deadline.
The strongest cases are usually the ones investigated early, while the proof still exists.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file a personal injury lawsuit in Florida? Generally two years from the date of injury under Fla. Stat. § 95.11 for negligence claims accruing after March 24, 2023. Wrongful death and medical malpractice claims also carry two-year periods with their own special rules, and claims against government entities require pre-suit notice first.
Does negotiating with the insurance company pause the deadline? No. Settlement talks, claim numbers, friendly adjusters, and pending offers do not stop the statute of limitations. Only filing a lawsuit does. Insurers know the deadline and some negotiate slowly on purpose.
What happens if I file after the deadline? The defendant raises the statute of limitations as a defense and the case is dismissed, regardless of its merits. Courts have almost no discretion to forgive a late filing.
Is the deadline different for a car accident claim? The lawsuit deadline is generally two years, but the PIP statute separately requires initial medical treatment within 14 days of the crash to preserve no-fault benefits, and uninsured motorist and other coverage issues have their own contractual notice requirements. Multiple clocks run at once.
I was injured more than two years ago. Is it hopeless? Not necessarily. Accrual dates, tolling rules, discovery doctrines, and the identity of the defendant can all move the analysis, and older incidents sometimes fall under the prior four-year statute. Have a lawyer run the dates before you conclude anything.
Do I need a lawyer just to protect the deadline? The deadline is one reason among many. A lawyer identifies every defendant and policy, sends preservation letters before evidence vanishes, handles required pre-suit steps, and files on time. All of that works better with time to spare.
Talk to a Florida personal injury attorney
Deadlines decide cases that facts should have decided. The attorneys at KWBR have represented injured people and grieving families throughout Florida for decades through our personal injury, auto accident, and wrongful death practices, and the cases we can help most are the ones that reach us early. If you or a loved one has been injured, contact us for a free, confidential consultation, and let us worry about the clocks.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. The examples above are hypothetical illustrations, not real cases. Deadlines depend on the specific facts and can change; consult a qualified Florida attorney about your situation promptly.