The outer deadline · Fla. Stat. 95.11
Florida Car Accident Statute of Limitations: Two Years, and the 2023 Cutoff
Florida cut its negligence deadline in half in 2023, and the change split claimants into two groups by crash date. A crash on or after March 24, 2023 carries a two-year deadline to file suit. A crash before that date kept the old four years. Miss the applicable deadline and the claim is extinguished no matter how badly you were hurt or how clearly the other driver was at fault.
- 2 yearsfor crashes on or after March 24, 2023
- 4 yearsfor crashes before that date
- 14 daysthe separate PIP deadline that expires first
- 0claims that survive the deadline passing
Independent informational site. Not a law firm, not legal advice.
What changed in 2023, and the exact boundary
House Bill 837 was signed on March 24, 2023 and rewrote several parts of Florida negligence law at once. The provision that matters most to ordinary car accident claimants amended Fla. Stat. 95.11 to shorten the limitations period for general negligence actions from four years to two.
The boundary is the date of the crash, not the date you hired anyone, not the date you discovered the injury, and not the date the insurer denied your claim. A collision on March 23, 2023 falls under the old four-year rule. A collision on March 24, 2023 falls under the new two-year rule. There is no sliding scale between them and no transitional period.
This produces an unpleasant situation that is still working itself through the system: people whose crashes happened in the first half of 2023 sometimes carry an assumption from friends, older articles, or their own prior experience that they have four years, when the correct answer for them is two. The deadline tool on this site applies the boundary correctly to whatever date you enter.
What the deadline actually requires
The statute of limitations is a deadline to file a lawsuit. It is not a deadline to settle, not a deadline to finish negotiating, and not a deadline to report the crash to anyone. A claim that is under active discussion with an adjuster on the day the period expires is extinguished exactly as thoroughly as one nobody ever pursued.
This distinction ends more claims than any other misunderstanding in Florida injury law. Negotiations create a feeling of forward motion, adjusters are often pleasant and responsive, and nothing in the process announces that a clock is running out. An insurer is under no obligation to warn a claimant that the limitations period is approaching, and a claim that becomes time-barred during friendly negotiation is worth nothing the following day.
Filing suit does not mean going to trial. Most filed cases still settle. Filing stops the clock and preserves the claim, which is why a lawsuit is often filed for procedural reasons well before anyone intends to see a courtroom.
Different claims, different clocks
People speak of one deadline. A single crash actually starts several, and they run at different speeds.
| The claim | The deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PIP medical benefits | Care within 14 days of the crash | Fla. Stat. 627.736 |
| Negligence claim, crash on or after 3/24/2023 | 2 years from the crash | Fla. Stat. 95.11 |
| Negligence claim, crash before 3/24/2023 | 4 years from the crash | Fla. Stat. 95.11, prior version |
| Wrongful death | 2 years from the date of death | Fla. Stat. 95.11 |
| Notice to your own insurer | Prompt notice, per the policy | Your policy terms |
Two features of that table cause trouble. The wrongful death clock runs from the date of death, which is not always the date of the crash, and the difference matters when someone survives a collision for weeks or months. And the policy-based notice obligations to your own insurer are contractual rather than statutory, meaning they can be much shorter than any statute and can forfeit coverage on their own terms.
Claims against a government entity, such as a crash involving a municipal vehicle or a road maintenance issue, carry additional pre-suit notice requirements and shorter practical timelines under Florida's sovereign immunity provisions. If a government vehicle or agency is anywhere in your crash, the ordinary two-year assumption is not the operative rule and the question is worth putting to a Florida attorney early rather than late.
Why waiting costs money long before the deadline
Treating two years as a comfortable runway misreads how claims are valued. Evidence decays on a much faster schedule than the statute.
Surveillance footage from businesses near an intersection is typically overwritten within days or weeks. Skid marks and debris fields are gone after the next rain. Witnesses who gave a phone number at the scene change phones and lose the memory of what they saw within months. Vehicles are repaired or sold, taking the physical evidence of impact force with them.
Medical evidence has the same problem in reverse. The gap between the crash date and the first treatment date is the single most attacked fact in an injury claim, and every week of delay makes the causation argument easier for the defense. That is entirely separate from the PIP forfeiture at day 15, which is covered on the 14-day rule page.
The practical effect is that a claim filed at month twenty-two is usually worth less than the same claim worked from week one, even though both are timely. The deadline governs whether a claim exists. The early weeks govern what it is worth.
Statute of limitations questions
How long do I have to sue after a car accident in Florida?
Two years from the crash if it occurred on or after March 24, 2023, and four years if it occurred before that date, under Fla. Stat. 95.11 as amended by House Bill 837. The deadline is to file suit, not to settle or to finish negotiating. Once it passes the claim is extinguished regardless of its merits.
Does the clock start at the crash or when I discovered the injury?
For ordinary motor vehicle negligence claims, the crash date. Delayed discovery doctrines exist in Florida for certain categories of claim, but a car accident where you knew you had been in a collision is not typically one of them. Assuming the crash date is correct is the safe posture, and any argument for a later start date is one to raise with a Florida attorney well before the ordinary deadline.
Does negotiating with the insurance company extend the deadline?
No. Settlement discussions have no effect on the limitations period, and the insurer has no duty to remind you it is approaching. Claims regularly become time-barred in the middle of active, cordial negotiation. If the deadline is near and no agreement is signed, filing suit is what preserves the claim.
What if the at-fault driver left the state?
Florida law provides for tolling in certain circumstances involving a defendant's absence from the state or concealment, but the exceptions are narrower than people hope and depend on specific facts. Treat the ordinary deadline as controlling and raise any tolling argument with an attorney early, since a tolling theory that fails leaves nothing behind it.
My crash was in early 2023. Which deadline applies to me?
Check the exact date against March 24, 2023. On or after that date, two years. Before it, four. This is the group most likely to be operating on a wrong assumption, because coverage of the old four-year rule remains widely available online and articles written before 2023 are still in circulation.
Is there a deadline for the PIP claim too?
Yes, and it is far shorter. PIP benefits require initial medical care within 14 days of the crash under Fla. Stat. 627.736, and there is no hardship exception. That deadline expires while most people are still dealing with the vehicle, which is why it is the one that gets missed.
Primary sources: Fla. Stat. 95.11 (limitations periods for negligence and wrongful death actions, as amended by House Bill 837, signed March 24, 2023), Fla. Stat. 627.736 (the separate 14-day PIP care requirement), Fla. Stat. 768.28 (sovereign immunity and pre-suit notice for claims against government entities). Statute text at Online Sunshine. General information, not legal advice, and deadlines turn on facts specific to each claim. Last reviewed August 2, 2026.