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Practice · car and truck crashes
Car accident lawyer in St. Petersburg
Florida’s no-fault system is not a benefit — it is a set of hurdles with a stopwatch attached. Here is how it works, what it pays, and where it runs out.
No-fault, in plain English
What PIP actually pays, and what it does not
Every Florida driver is required to carry Personal Injury Protection. Most people believe it covers their medical bills after a crash. What it actually does is pay a capped, partial share of them, on conditions, and then stop.
- $10,000 total. That is the standard PIP benefit, and it covers medical expenses and lost wages together — not $10,000 of each.
- 80 per cent of medical, 60 per cent of lost wages. PIP pays a percentage of reasonable expenses, not the whole bill, up to the cap.
- Care within 14 days or nothing. Initial services and care must be received within 14 days of the crash for medical benefits to be payable (Fla. Stat. §627.736(1)(a)).
- $2,500 without an emergency medical condition. If no qualified provider determines that you had an emergency medical condition, the available benefit falls from $10,000 to $2,500.
- Thirty days to pay or deny. Once the insurer receives written notice of a covered loss it has 30 days to act (Fla. Stat. §627.736(4)(b)).
All of the above: Fla. Stat. §627.736
The part nobody explains
The threshold: when you can step outside no-fault
Because Florida is a no-fault state, you cannot automatically sue the driver who hit you for pain and suffering. You have to clear a statutory threshold first. Under Fla. Stat. §627.737(2), that means an injury consisting in whole or in part of:
- significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function;
- permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement;
- significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement; or
- death.
Whether your injury meets that description is a medical opinion supported by records — which is why the gap between the crash and your first appointment, and every gap in treatment after it, ends up being argued about later.
The Florida-specific trap
Florida does not require drivers to carry injury coverage
This surprises almost everyone. To register a car in Florida you must carry $10,000 of PIP and $10,000 of property-damage liability. Bodily injury liability coverage is not required of an ordinary Florida driver. The person who hit you may legally be carrying nothing that pays for what happened to your body.
That is why the most valuable document in a Florida crash file is often your own policy’s declarations page. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, if you bought it, steps into the gap the other driver left. Stacking, household members and rejection forms all matter here, and insurers do not volunteer any of it.
Send us three things and we can usually tell you where you stand
The crash report or exchange-of-information slip, your own auto policy declarations page, and the name of anywhere you have been treated. That is enough for a real conversation rather than a guess.
If you are not sure whether you have a claim
Ask before the fourteenth day, not after it.
The 14-day PIP deadline and the two-year limitations period do not pause while you decide. A call costs nothing and takes ten minutes.
The signature of this office
Your crash, week by week
Almost every personal injury case in Florida is decided by things that happen — or fail to happen — long before anyone files anything. These are the dates that matter, with the statute beside each one so you can check us.
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Hour 0
Get looked at, and say where it hurts
Adrenaline hides injuries for a day or two. The gap between the crash and the first medical record is the single most common thing an insurer uses to argue you were not really hurt.
Practical, not statutory
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14 days
The Florida rule that ends most PIP claims
Florida’s no-fault statute pays your initial medical benefits only if you get initial services and care within 14 days of the crash. Miss that window and the $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection you paid for is simply not available.
Fla. Stat. §627.736(1)(a)
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30 days
The insurer’s own clock starts
Once a PIP insurer receives written notice of a covered loss, the statute gives it 30 days to pay or to deny. Silence past 30 days is itself a fact worth recording.
Fla. Stat. §627.736(4)(b)
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Weeks 1–8
Evidence that expires
Store and parking-lot video is routinely overwritten in days. Skid marks wash away, a damaged vehicle gets repaired or sold for salvage, and witnesses move. A preservation letter has to go out before any of that happens, not after.
Practical, not statutory
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6 months
If a government vehicle or property is involved
A claim against the state, a county, a city or an agency has its own track: written notice must be presented, and the statute puts limits on what may be recovered from a government body at all.
Fla. Stat. §768.28
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2 years
The deadline that ends the case
For a negligence cause of action accruing on or after 24 March 2023, Florida gives you two years to file suit — not the four years most websites and most people still believe. Wrongful death was already two.
Fla. Stat. §95.11(4)(a), §95.11(4)(e)
General information about Florida law, current as of 2026. Not legal advice, and not a substitute for advice about your own facts.
A case that went the distance
In 2024, a Pinellas County jury returned a $38.5 million verdict against the City of Clearwater for a client of this office, in a case arising from a pedestrian struck at a Clearwater intersection. It is mentioned here for one reason: insurers know which lawyers will actually try a case, and it changes how they negotiate.
No two cases are alike. A past result is not a promise about yours.
Free case review
Talk to the lawyer who would handle the case.
Not an intake centre, not a call-screener working from a script. Tell us what happened and you will get a straight answer about whether there is a claim worth bringing.
- Call
- (727) 685-8000
- Office
- 1700 66th St N, Suite 203
St. Petersburg, FL 33710 - Hours
- Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Phones are answered 24 hours a day, every day.
Straight answers
Car accident questions
Does PIP cover all of my medical bills?
No. Florida PIP is capped at $10,000 in total benefits and generally pays 80 per cent of reasonable medical expenses and 60 per cent of lost wages, up to that combined cap (Fla. Stat. §627.736). If no treating provider determines that you had an emergency medical condition, the available benefit drops to $2,500.
What is the 14-day rule?
Initial services and care must be received within 14 days of the crash for PIP medical benefits to be payable at all (Fla. Stat. §627.736(1)(a)). It is the single most common reason a Florida crash victim ends up with no no-fault benefits.
When can I sue the other driver instead of just using PIP?
Florida’s no-fault law limits claims for pain and suffering to cases meeting a statutory threshold: significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death (Fla. Stat. §627.737(2)). Whether an injury meets it is a medical question answered by your records, not by an adjuster’s first phone call.
The other driver had no insurance. Is that the end of it?
Not necessarily, and this is where Florida surprises people. Florida requires ordinary drivers to carry $10,000 of PIP and $10,000 of property-damage liability — it does not require bodily injury liability coverage at all. That is why uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy is often the most important page in the file. Send us your declarations page.
What should I do at the scene?
Get medical attention, call law enforcement, photograph everything including the whole scene rather than only the damage, get names and numbers for anyone who saw it, and do not discuss fault. Since Florida’s 2023 comparative-fault change, an offhand apology at the roadside can be used as an admission.
How long do I have?
Two years from the date of the crash for a negligence action accruing on or after 24 March 2023 (Fla. Stat. §95.11(4)(a)). A claim involving a government vehicle follows §768.28 and its notice requirements instead.
How the fee works
The first conversation is free. After that this office works on a contingency fee: an attorney’s fee is charged only out of a recovery, so if there is no recovery there is no attorney’s fee. Case costs and expenses are a separate thing from the fee — filing fees, records, retained witnesses and the like — and how those are handled is set out in the written fee agreement before you sign it. Ask about them on the first call; you should never have to guess.
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