Florida injury deadlines — all of them, with the statute for each
Florida injury claims run on at least six different clocks. The general rule is two years, but the tightest one is not the lawsuit deadline — it is the 14-day window to get medical treatment.
The table
| Kind of claim | Deadline | Clock starts | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most injury claims (negligence) — car crashes, falls, most accidents | 2 years | The date you were hurt | Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a) |
| Wrongful death | 2 years | The date of death | Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(e) |
| Medical malpractice | 2 years, with a hard 4-year outer wall | When it happened, or when you found out (or reasonably should have) | Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(c) |
| Medical malpractice hidden by fraud or concealment | 7 years maximum | The incident | Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(c) |
| Medical malpractice involving a child | The 4-year and 7-year walls cannot cut off a claim brought on or before the child's 8th birthday | — | Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(c) |
| Professional malpractice other than medical | 2 years | Discovery | Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(b) |
| Written notice before suing a city, county, school board, or the State | 3 years (2 years if it is a wrongful death) | When the claim arises | Fla. Stat. 768.28(6)(a) |
| Lawsuit against a Florida government body (general) | 4 years | When the claim arises | Fla. Stat. 768.28(14) |
| Lawsuit against a Florida government body for wrongful death or medical malpractice | 2 years — 768.28(14) sends these back to the 95.11(5) deadlines | See 95.11(5) | Fla. Stat. 768.28(14) |
| PIP: get medical treatment or PIP medical benefits are not payable | 14 days | The crash | Fla. Stat. 627.736(1)(a) |
Source: Deadlines read from the current Florida Statutes on flsenate.gov, August 14, 2026. Full links on the sources page.
The two-year rule, and the change that catches people out
For most injury claims the deadline is two years from the day you were hurt. Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a) puts it under the heading “WITHIN TWO YEARS”: “An action founded on negligence.”
It used to be four years. A 2023 law — HB 837, Chapter 2023-15 — moved negligence from the four-year list to the two-year list, effective March 24, 2023. The act says the change “appl[ies] to causes of action accruing after the effective date,” so a claim that arose on or before March 24, 2023 keeps the old four-year window.
Why you still see “four years” online
A lot of pages were written before 2023 and never updated. Before HB 837 the four-year rule lived at 95.11(3)(a); negligence now sits at 95.11(5)(a), so a page still citing 95.11(3)(a) as live law is quoting the repealed version. If a page tells you four years for a 2025 or 2026 injury, it is out of date. It is not always wrong, though: an injury that happened between about August 2022 and March 24, 2023 can still be inside the old four-year window today, because a claim that arose on March 24, 2023 runs until March 24, 2027. An injury from March 25, 2023 onward is on the two-year side. Which side a particular incident falls on turns on its accrual date.
Source: HB 837 (2023) bill history and the enrolled text, Chapter 2023-15, effective March 24, 2023.
Medical malpractice: three deadlines stacked on each other
Medical malpractice has the most complicated clock in Florida injury law. Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(c) gives you two years from when the incident happened or two years from when you discovered it (or should have, using reasonable diligence) — but then adds a hard wall: “in no event shall the action be commenced later than 4 years from the date of the incident.” Fraud or concealment by the provider pushes the wall out to seven years. Neither wall can cut off a claim brought for a child on or before the child's eighth birthday.
Two things that move the deadline, which people miss
- Presuit notice pauses the clock. Fla. Stat. 766.106(3)(a) bars filing suit for 90 days after notice is delivered to a prospective defendant. The tolling itself is in the next subsection, Fla. Stat. 766.106(4), which pauses the limitations period during those 90 days and then gives you “60 days or the remainder of the period of the statute of limitations, whichever is greater.”
- There is an automatic 90-day extension. Fla. Stat. 766.104(2) grants it on a petition to the clerk plus a filing fee, to allow the required investigation. It does not revive a deadline that has already passed.
Suing a government body is a different game
If a city, county, school board, or state agency hurt you — a garbage truck, a police car, a sidewalk, a public hospital — you cannot simply file suit. Fla. Stat. 768.28(6)(a) requires you to present the claim in writing first, generally within three years (two for wrongful death), to the agency involved and also to the Florida Department of Financial Services — that second mailing is not required for a municipality, a county, or the Florida Space Authority.
- The notice is a condition precedent. Fla. Stat. 768.28(6)(b) means no notice, no lawsuit — regardless of how strong the case is.
- Then you wait. Under Fla. Stat. 768.28(6)(d), if the agency does not finally dispose of the claim within six months — 90 days for medical malpractice and wrongful death claims — that counts as a denial and you can proceed.
- The general lawsuit deadline is 4 years, not 2 — but read the exception. Fla. Stat. 768.28(14) bars claims not filed within four years, and then carves out that “an action for damages arising from medical malpractice or wrongful death must be commenced within the limitations for such actions in s. 95.11(5)” — which is two years. So a wrongful-death claim against a city or a school board is a two-year claim, not a four-year one.
- What the government pays is capped. Fla. Stat. 768.28(5)(a) limits it to $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. Anything above that requires the Legislature to pass a claim bill.
The government caps are still $200,000 / $300,000 in August 2026
Two attempts to raise them failed. HB 301 (2025) passed the House and then died in Senate Rules on June 16, 2025. HB 145 (2026) passed both chambers and was vetoed on June 30, 2026, so its intended October 1, 2026 effective date never took effect. If you read that Florida raised the caps, that is a bill that did not become law.
Source: HB 301 (2025) · HB 145 (2026), Florida Senate bill histories, read August 14, 2026.
The deadline that hits first: 14 days
None of the above is the deadline most people blow. After a car crash, Fla. Stat. 627.736(1)(a) pays your PIP medical benefits only “if the individual receives initial services and care… within 14 days after the motor vehicle accident.” Two weeks. Miss it and PIP medical benefits are not payable. The 14-day condition sits in the medical-benefits paragraph, so by its terms it does not govern the separate wage-loss and death benefits — but medical coverage is the part people are relying on. Full PIP rules, including who counts as the right provider.
Questions
What is the statute of limitations for a car accident in Florida?
Two years from the date of the crash for a negligence claim, under Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a). Before HB 837 took effect on March 24, 2023 it was four years, and claims that arose on or before that date kept the four-year period.
Does the two-year deadline apply to insurance claims too?
No. The two-year period is the deadline to file a lawsuit. Insurance policies impose their own, much shorter, notice requirements — often 'prompt' or 'immediate' notice — and PIP requires treatment within 14 days. Reporting a claim to an insurer is not the same as filing suit and does not extend the statute.
How long do I have to sue a city or county in Florida?
You must present a written claim first, generally within three years (two years for wrongful death) under Fla. Stat. 768.28(6)(a). The lawsuit is generally due within four years under 768.28(14) — but that same subsection sends claims arising from wrongful death or medical malpractice back to the limitations in 95.11(5), which are two years. Damages the government must pay are capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident.
What happens if I miss the statute of limitations?
The claim is barred. The other side raises the deadline and the case is dismissed, regardless of how serious the injury was. A narrow set of exceptions exists — for example tolling while a defendant is absent from the state under Fla. Stat. 95.051 — but they are exceptions, not a plan. A claim filed after the limitations period has run is barred.
Is the medical malpractice deadline really only two years?
Two years from the incident or from discovery, with a four-year absolute wall from the incident date (seven years if the provider committed fraud or concealment, and neither wall can bar a child's claim brought on or before the child's eighth birthday). Presuit notice under Fla. Stat. 766.106(3)-(4) pauses the clock for 90 days, and 766.104(2) allows an automatic 90-day extension.