By Jay Wasserman
Florida welcomes well over a hundred million visitors a year, and a great many of them pick up a rental car at the airport in Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Tampa within an hour of landing. They are driving unfamiliar cars on unfamiliar roads, following a GPS through toll plazas and interchanges, sometimes on the opposite side of the road from the one they learned on. Crashes follow.
When one happens, both sides of it run into rules most people have never heard of. A Florida resident hit by a tourist in a rental car learns that the rental company, which owns the car, usually cannot be held responsible for the crash at all. A visiting family hurt on I-4 learns that Florida’s no-fault system applies to them, that some of its benefits depend on getting medical care within 14 days, and that the case will almost certainly be decided under Florida law, in Florida, after they have gone home.
This article explains how those cases actually work, from both directions.
Florida’s owner liability rule, and the federal law that carves out rental companies
Florida has an unusually strong rule for vehicle owners. Under the dangerous instrumentality doctrine, which the Florida Supreme Court first applied to automobiles in Southern Cotton Oil Co. v. Anderson, 86 So. 629 (Fla. 1920), the owner of a motor vehicle who entrusts it to someone else is vicariously liable for that person’s negligent driving. The owner does not have to have done anything wrong. Lending the car is enough.
For individual owners who lend a car, the Legislature has capped that liability. Under Fla. Stat. § 324.021(9)(b)3., a natural person who loans a vehicle to a permissive user is liable only up to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for bodily injury and $50,000 for property damage, plus up to an additional $500,000 in economic damages if the driver was uninsured or carried less than $500,000 in combined limits.
Rental companies are different, because of federal law. The Graves Amendment, 49 U.S.C. § 30106, enacted in 2005, provides that a company in the business of renting or leasing motor vehicles is not liable under state law, by reason of being the owner, for harm arising from the use of the vehicle during the rental, so long as the company itself was not negligent and did not engage in criminal wrongdoing. In Garcia v. Vanguard Car Rental USA, Inc., 540 F.3d 1242 (11th Cir. 2008), the Eleventh Circuit held that the Graves Amendment preempts Florida’s vicarious liability rule as applied to rental companies and upheld it as a valid exercise of Congress’s commerce power. The Florida Supreme Court reached the same conclusion about the rental company caps in § 324.021(9)(b)2. in Vargas v. Enterprise Leasing Co., 60 So. 3d 1037 (Fla. 2011).
The practical result is that the rental company is usually not a defendant just because it owns the car. The driver is the defendant, and the driver’s insurance, if any, is what pays.
The claims against a rental company that survive
The Graves Amendment protects ownership, not misconduct. Its savings clause preserves claims based on the rental company’s own negligence or criminal wrongdoing, and those claims are worth investigating in any serious case:
- Negligent maintenance. A car rented out with bald tires, failing brakes, or an open safety recall that the company had notice of and did not repair. Rental fleets turn cars around quickly, and maintenance and recall records are among the first documents to request.
- Negligent entrustment. Renting to someone the company knew or should have known could not drive safely: a renter who was visibly intoxicated at the counter, who had no valid license, or who was outside the company’s own age and eligibility rules.
- The company’s own employees. A crash involving a shuttle bus or an employee moving cars between lots is a claim against the company as an employer, not as an owner.
These claims are the exception rather than the rule. In most rental car cases, the realistic sources of payment are the insurance that travels with the driver or the car, and the injured person’s own coverage.
How much insurance is actually behind a rental car
This is the part of the case that most often surprises a Florida resident hit by a rental car.
Florida requires vehicle owners to carry $10,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) and $10,000 in property damage liability under Fla. Stat. § 324.022 and § 627.736. It does not require ordinary drivers to carry bodily injury liability coverage at all, as our guide to what to do after a car accident in Florida explains. Rental companies operating in Florida meet the PIP and property damage requirements for their cars, and under Fla. Stat. § 627.7263, the rental company’s liability and PIP coverage is primary unless the rental agreement shifts primary responsibility to the renter’s own insurance in the specific language and type size the statute requires.
What that coverage includes beyond the statutory minimums varies by company and by contract, and it is often very little. The coverage that can actually pay for a serious injury usually comes from one of these places:
- Supplemental liability insurance (SLI) that the renter bought at the counter, which commonly provides liability limits up to $1 million. Many renters decline it.
- The renter’s own auto policy back home, which often extends liability coverage to a rental car. Many U.S. policies do; whether a particular one does, and at what limit, depends on its terms.
- A foreign visitor’s coverage. Visitors from Canada who drive their own cars to Florida frequently carry liability limits far higher than Florida’s minimums, and some international travelers have coverage through travel policies or their rental booking. Visitors from other countries renting a car here may have nothing beyond what came with the rental.
- Credit card benefits. These usually cover damage to the rental car itself, not injuries to other people. They are rarely a source of payment for an injury claim.
Identifying every one of these policies early, and demanding the rental agreement that shows what the renter accepted or declined, is the first real task in the case. When the coverage behind the at-fault driver is thin, the case is usually paid through the injured person’s own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, discussed below and in our guide to uninsured motorist claims in Florida.
Peer-to-peer rentals: Turo and similar platforms
Many visitors now rent a private owner’s car through a peer-to-peer platform instead of a rental counter. Florida regulates these arrangements under Fla. Stat. § 627.7483. The statute requires the platform to ensure that, during the car-sharing period, the owner and the driver are insured under a policy that provides at least Florida’s required liability, PIP, and uninsured motorist minimums. The coverage can come from the owner’s policy, the driver’s policy, the platform’s policy, or a combination, and the platform assumes liability for those minimums in defined circumstances.
Two points matter in practice. First, the statute guarantees minimums, not meaningful limits; the protection plan the driver chose on the app may determine whether more is available. Second, whether a private host who rents out a personal car is protected by the Graves Amendment the way a rental company is, and how Florida’s owner liability rules apply to the host, are questions that turn on how the host operates and are still being litigated. A peer-to-peer crash calls for the platform’s records of who was in control of the car, the trip timeline, and the protection plan selected, and those records should be requested in writing right away.
If you are the visitor: PIP, the 14-day rule, and the threshold
A visitor hurt in a Florida crash is subject to Florida’s no-fault system, and its rules apply whether or not the visitor has heard of them.
PIP for visitors. Nonresidents are generally not required to carry Florida PIP unless their vehicle has been in the state for more than 90 days in the preceding year. But a visitor riding in a vehicle that is insured for Florida PIP, including a Florida rental car, is generally covered by that vehicle’s PIP. A visitor struck as a pedestrian is in a different position, because the PIP coverage that follows Florida residents onto the street generally does not extend to nonresidents. Which policy pays first, and whether the visitor’s own home-state policy contributes, depends on the facts.
The 14-day rule applies to everyone. To receive PIP benefits, the injured person must receive initial medical treatment within 14 days of the crash, and benefits are capped at $2,500 rather than $10,000 unless a qualifying provider determines the person had an emergency medical condition. For a family flying home in three days, the practical lesson is to get evaluated in Florida before leaving, and to follow up promptly at home. Delay is also the defense’s favorite argument that an injury happened somewhere else.
The threshold. Under Fla. Stat. § 627.737, a person suing the owner or operator of a vehicle that carries Florida PIP security can recover pain and suffering damages only if the injury meets the statutory threshold, most often a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability. The tort exemption and threshold are tied to the defendant’s vehicle carrying Florida PIP security. A visitor who caused a crash in their own out-of-state car, without Florida PIP, may not have the benefit of that protection, although the Florida Supreme Court held in Spence v. Hughes, 500 So. 2d 538 (Fla. 1987), that a nonresident who voluntarily carried coverage meeting Florida’s requirements did. Whether the threshold applies is a question to answer before valuing the claim, not after.
Fault and medical damages. Since the 2023 tort reform, Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6) bars recovery by a claimant found more than 50 percent at fault in most negligence cases, and Fla. Stat. § 768.0427 generally limits evidence of past medical expenses to amounts actually paid. For a visitor treated partly in Florida and partly at home, how each bill was paid and documented will be examined closely. Foreign visitors should also expect that their travel medical insurer, and in some countries a national health plan, may claim reimbursement from any recovery, a subject our guide to where a Florida injury settlement’s money goes covers in detail.
Suing a driver who has gone home
A tourist who causes a crash is usually back in another state or another country within days. That is an obstacle, but a manageable one.
Florida has jurisdiction. Driving on Florida roads subjects a driver to suit here for a crash that happened here. Under Fla. Stat. § 48.171, a nonresident who operates a motor vehicle in Florida, or who owns a vehicle operated here with their consent, is deemed to have appointed the Secretary of State as agent for service of process in actions arising from a Florida accident. The statute and its companion procedures require that notice and a copy of the process also be sent to the defendant, and the steps must be followed precisely, particularly for a defendant abroad, where international service rules may also come into play.
The insurer is the real party in interest. In practice, the driver’s or the rental’s liability carrier usually appoints defense counsel, and the case proceeds like any other. The defendant’s physical absence matters most at trial and in enforcing a judgment beyond the limits of the available insurance, which against a foreign individual can be difficult.
Florida law usually governs, and Florida is usually the forum. Under Bishop v. Florida Specialty Paint Co., 389 So. 2d 999 (Fla. 1980), Florida applies the law of the state with the most significant relationship to the occurrence, which for a crash on a Florida road is ordinarily Florida. Venue is ordinarily the county where the crash happened or where a defendant resides. Where the parties are from different states and more than $75,000 is at stake, a case may also be filed in, or removed to, federal court.
Uninsured motorist coverage: often where the case is paid
For a Florida resident, the most important insurance in a rental car crash is frequently their own. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under Fla. Stat. § 627.727 pays when the at-fault driver has no bodily injury coverage or not enough, which is precisely the situation created by a declined SLI, a foreign renter, and Florida’s lack of a bodily injury requirement. UM coverage follows the insured person, so it also generally applies to a pedestrian or cyclist struck by a rental car, as our guide to pedestrian and bicycle accidents explains.
The UM claim has its own procedures: notice to the carrier, consent before settling with the at-fault driver, and the insurer’s right to protect its subrogation interest. Handling the liability claim and the UM claim in the right order is part of what preserves the full value of the case.
What to do at the scene, and in the first week
Rental car and tourist cases lose evidence quickly, because the people and the car disperse. In order of priority:
- Call law enforcement and get a crash report. The report identifies the driver, the vehicle, and, critically, the rental company and the license plate. Florida law requires drivers to stop, exchange information, and render aid; a driver who flees commits a crime under Fla. Stat. § 316.027.
- Photograph the other driver’s license, the rental agreement or rental jacket, and the car’s plate and barcode. The rental agreement shows the rental company, the renter, the rental period, and whether SLI was purchased or declined. If the other driver will not show it, photograph the barcode sticker on the windshield or window and the plate.
- Get the names and contact information of passengers and witnesses, including where they live. Out-of-state witnesses are reachable for months; witnesses whose names were never written down are not.
- Get medical care right away, within the 14 days PIP requires and preferably the same day.
- Send a preservation demand to the rental company or platform. The car will be repaired, returned to the fleet, or auctioned quickly. A written demand should cover the vehicle and its event data recorder, the rental agreement and counter records, maintenance and recall records, GPS and telematics data, and any counter video. Under Martino v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 908 So. 2d 342 (Fla. 2005), Florida does not recognize an independent claim for a defendant’s loss of evidence, so the demand is how the obligation becomes concrete.
- Notify your own insurer, including for UM purposes, and be careful with recorded statements to the other side’s carrier.
A hypothetical
Hypothetically: a Fort Lauderdale resident is stopped at a light on Federal Highway when a rented SUV, driven by a tourist from overseas reading a navigation app, rear-ends her at speed. She suffers a herniated disc that ultimately requires surgery. The tourist declined the supplemental liability coverage at the counter, and flies home four days later.
Her lawyer’s first instinct, a claim against the rental company as the owner, is foreclosed by the Graves Amendment. Instead, the lawyer obtains the rental agreement, which confirms that SLI was declined, and identifies the liability coverage that came with the rental, which is modest. A preservation demand secures the SUV’s event data recorder before the car is returned to service, and the data confirms the SUV’s speed and that it never braked. The maintenance and recall records show nothing wrong with the car, so there is no independent negligence claim against the company.
The case is resolved through a settlement for the available liability coverage, with the consent of her own UM carrier, followed by a claim under her UM policy for the remainder of her damages. Her PIP paid the first $10,000 of her medical bills because she was seen at an emergency department the day of the crash. The tourist never returned to Florida, and did not need to.
Deadlines
For negligence claims arising on or after March 24, 2023, the limitations period under Fla. Stat. § 95.11 is generally two years from the crash. A wrongful death claim must generally be filed within two years of the death, through the personal representative described in our guide to Florida wrongful death claims.
PIP claims, UM claims, and claims against a government entity for a road defect carry their own notice requirements and deadlines, and a defendant who has left the country can make service slower than expected. Our guide to Florida’s personal injury time limits sets out the full set of rules. A case against a visitor should be investigated and filed with time to spare.
Frequently asked questions
A tourist in a rental car hit me. Can I sue the rental company? Usually not simply because it owns the car. The federal Graves Amendment bars vicarious liability claims against rental companies based on ownership alone. A claim survives if the company was itself negligent, for example by renting a car with defective brakes or an unrepaired recall, or by renting to someone it knew could not drive safely.
How much insurance does a rental car carry? It varies, and it is often less than people expect. Florida requires PIP and property damage coverage but not bodily injury liability coverage for most drivers. The renter may have bought supplemental liability insurance at the counter or may be covered by their own auto policy back home. The rental agreement and the renter’s own insurance documents are the starting point.
The driver who hit me lives in another country. Can I still bring a claim? Yes. A driver who causes a crash on a Florida road can be sued in Florida, and Florida law provides for service through the Secretary of State in these cases. In practice, the case is usually defended by the driver’s or the rental’s insurer. Collecting more than the available insurance from a foreign individual is difficult, which is why your own UM coverage often matters most.
I was visiting Florida and got hurt in a crash. Do Florida’s rules apply to me? Generally yes. A crash on a Florida road is ordinarily governed by Florida law, including the 14-day medical treatment rule for PIP, the permanent injury threshold where it applies, modified comparative fault, and the two-year deadline for negligence claims. Your home state’s rules are usually not the ones to plan around.
I already flew home. Is it too late? No, but act quickly. Get medical care at home right away if you have not already, keep every record, and contact a Florida lawyer who can send preservation demands for the rental car, its data, and the crash records. Most of the case can be handled while you are at home.
What about Turo and other car-sharing apps? Florida law requires the platform to ensure that minimum liability, PIP, and uninsured motorist coverage is in place during the trip, from the owner, the driver, the platform, or a combination. Whether more coverage is available depends on the protection plan selected and the policies involved, and how owner liability rules apply to a private host is still being worked out by the courts.
Talk to a Florida car accident attorney
Rental car and tourist crash cases are won early: by finding every policy behind the driver and the car, reading the rental agreement for what was accepted and declined, preserving the vehicle and its data before it goes back into the fleet, pursuing the rental company where its own negligence played a role, and sequencing the liability and UM claims so nothing is left behind.
KWBR’s auto accident, personal injury, and wrongful death practices represent Florida residents hurt by visiting drivers, and visitors hurt on Florida roads, from our Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Boca Raton offices. If you were hurt in a crash involving a rental car or an out-of-state driver, contact us as soon as you can, ideally before the car and the driver are gone.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice. Statutes, case law, insurance policies, and rental agreements vary, and every case turns on its own facts; consult a qualified Florida attorney about your situation.