Key Takeaways
- Most Florida personal injury claims must be filed within two years of the date the claim accrues.
- That two-year rule took effect on March 24, 2023, and applies only to claims accruing after that date.
- Medical malpractice, product, construction, and abuse claims each run on separate clocks.
- Claims against a government agency require written notice first, then carry a four-year filing deadline.
- Only the narrow circumstances listed in Florida Statute 95.051 pause a running clock.
Most Florida personal injury claims now carry a two-year filing deadline, cut from four years by a 2023 change in state law. If that number surprises you, you are not alone. Plenty of pages still describe the Florida personal injury statute of limitations as four years, and that difference decides whether a claim gets heard at all.
Miss the date and a strong case gets dismissed on the calendar rather than on its facts. At Tony Caggiano Personal Injury Lawyer, we work backward from the deadline before anything else because the applicable clock depends on the type of claim and who caused the harm. If you are unsure how much time is left on yours, our team can tell you in one phone call.
How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Florida?
A statute of limitations is the outside date for filing a lawsuit in court. Two years is the general rule in Florida for injuries caused by carelessness. A handful of claim types run on different schedules, and those exceptions are where cases get lost.
The Two-Year Deadline for Negligence Claims
Florida Statute 95.11(5)(a) places an action founded on negligence in the two-year column. Negligence covers most of what people mean by a personal injury case, including car and truck crashes, slip and fall injuries, and unsafe property conditions. The deadline governs when a lawsuit must be filed in court, not when an insurance claim must be opened.
Why the Deadline Changed on March 24, 2023
Florida cut the negligence deadline in half when House Bill 837 became law. The governor signed the bill on March 24, 2023, and it took effect the same day. Chapter 2023-15, Laws of Florida, states that the amendments to section 95.11 apply to causes of action accruing after the effective date.
That accrual date matters more than the filing date. An injury from an incident in early March 2023 may still run on the old four-year clock, while an injury from the following month runs on the two-year clock.
When the Florida Personal Injury Statute of Limitations Starts Running
The clock does not always start on the day you were hurt. Under Florida Statute 95.031(1), a cause of action accrues when the last element constituting the cause of action occurs. For most crash and fall injuries, all elements are present at the time of harm, so the incident and accrual dates are the same.
Some claims separate the two. A surgical injury discovered months later, or a defective product whose danger only becomes clear after the fact, can accrue on a date later than the event itself. Assuming that later date applies is a gamble, so at Tony Caggiano Personal Injury Lawyer, we treat the incident date as the deadline unless the file proves otherwise.
Say a driver is rear-ended on September 3, 2026. The lawsuit deadline is September 3, 2028, regardless of whether medical treatment has finished by then. Waiting for treatment to wrap up is one of the most common ways a two-year window quietly closes.
Deadlines in Florida That Are Not Two Years
Not every injury claim runs on the negligence clock. Several categories have their own periods under section 95.11, and choosing the wrong one can cost the claim entirely. The following deadlines come up most often:
- Wrongful death claims: Run two years from the date of death, under section 95.11(4)(d).
- Medical malpractice claims: Run two years from the incident, or two years from the date it is discovered, under section 95.11(4)(b).
- Defective product claims: Injuries arising from the design, manufacture, or sale of a defective product run for four years under section 95.11(3)(d).
- Construction and design defect claims: Run four years from the certificate of occupancy, certificate of completion, or abandonment of construction, under section 95.11(3)(b).
- Abuse claims: Claims founded on alleged abuse run seven years after the age of majority, or four years after the injured person leaves dependency, under section 95.11(8).
A single incident can produce more than one of these, which is why the shortest applicable deadline drives the calendar.
Medical Malpractice Has a Second Outer Limit
The two-year discovery window does not run forever. Section 95.11(5)(c) states that in no event shall the action be commenced later than four years from the date of the incident. Where fraud, concealment, or intentional misrepresentation prevented discovery of the injury, that outer limit extends to seven years.
Both limits carry the same exception for children. Neither one bars an action brought on behalf of a minor on or before the child's eighth birthday.
If you are unsure which of those clocks applies to what happened to you, that question is worth a phone call rather than a guess. Reach our Orlando team at Tony Caggiano Personal Injury Lawyer at (407) 244-1212 for a free case evaluation.
Claims Against a City, County, or State Agency Follow Different Rules
A pothole crash, a county bus collision, or a fall inside a public building puts you in a separate system. Sovereign immunity, the rule that shields government bodies from most lawsuits, is waived on specific terms by Florida Statute 768.28. Section 768.28(14) states that such a claim is forever barred unless the civil action is commenced within four years after the claim accrues.
That is two years longer than the ordinary negligence window, and it is not a reason to wait. A separate notice requirement takes precedence and has its own deadline.
The Written Notice Requirement Comes First
Before any lawsuit, the injured person must present the claim in writing to the responsible agency and, in most cases, to the Department of Financial Services. Section 768.28(6)(a) sets that presentation deadline at three years after the claim accrues. Where the action is for wrongful death, the written notice is due within two years.
The agency then gets time to respond, and the lawsuit cannot begin until the claim is denied in writing or the response period lapses. Skipping the notice step does not merely delay a case. It bars it.
Damage Caps Under Section 768.28
Recovery against a government defendant is capped by statute. Section 768.28(5) limits payment to $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, no matter the size of a jury award. That ceiling shapes how a claim against a public agency gets evaluated from the first week.
The Narrow List of Reasons the Clock Pauses
Tolling is the legal term for pausing a limitations period. Florida does not treat it as a general fairness question. Florida Statute 95.051 lists the circumstances that toll the clock, and several of them come up in injury cases:
- Absence from the state of the person to be sued.
- Use by that person of a false name, unknown to you, so that process cannot be served.
- Concealment within the state so that process cannot be served.
- The adjudicated incapacity of the injured person before the cause of action accrued.
- The minority of the person entitled to file.
- The pendency of an arbitration proceeding covering the same dispute.
Section 95.051(2) then closes the door on everything else, stating that a disability or other reason does not toll the running of any statute of limitations except those specified in that section.
Minors and Adjudicated Incapacity
Tolling for incapacity has a ceiling. Where the injured person was adjudicated incapacitated before the cause of action accrued, section 95.051(1)(d) still requires the action to begin within seven years after the act, event, or occurrence.
Children injured by medical care follow their own rule. Section 95.11(5)(c) provides that its four-year and seven-year limits do not bar an action brought on behalf of a minor on or before the child's eighth birthday. That birthday becomes the date families work backward from.
What to Do Before Your Deadline Gets Close
Two years disappear faster than most people expect, especially when treatment runs long. A few steps early on protect the option to file later:
- Get medical treatment and keep all records, bills, and referrals together in one place.
- Report the incident to the property owner, employer, or law enforcement agency involved, and request a copy of any report.
- Photograph the scene, the hazard, and the vehicle or equipment before anything is repaired or cleaned up.
- Identify every party who may share responsibility, including any government agency, because that answer changes which deadline applies.
- Have a lawyer review the file well before the final months, while witnesses are still reachable and records still exist.
Each step gets harder the longer it waits, and none of them stops the statute of limitations from running.
Frequently Asked Questions About Florida's Personal Injury Filing Deadline
These are the questions we hear most often once someone realizes the calendar matters.
It took effect on March 24, 2023, the day House Bill 837 was signed into law. The amendments apply to causes of action accruing after that date.
No. Claims that accrued before that date generally run on the previous four-year period, though the accrual date controls and is worth confirming.
Florida Statute 768.28(14) requires that the civil action be filed within 4 years. Written notice must be presented to the agency first, within three years.
No. Insurance negotiations run on their own timeline, and the court deadline keeps running while an adjuster reviews the file.
Two years from the date of death, under Florida Statute 95.11(5)(e). Wrongful death claims against a government agency require written notice within two years.
The other side can move to dismiss, and courts grant those motions regardless of how serious the injury is. That is why we calendar the date at intake.
Do Not Let the Florida Personal Injury Statute of Limitations Expire
Two years sounds like a long time, especially after spending eight months in physical therapy. By then the crash report is filed, the adjuster has changed twice, and the date set by section 95.11(5)(a) has quietly moved closer. Knowing where your claim sits on that calendar changes what you can still do about it.
Our firm has represented injured people in Orlando since 1987, and we handle personal injury claims on a contingency fee basis. When someone calls close to a deadline, the first thing we do is confirm which clock applies and what the file needs before it runs out of time. You do not need to have decided anything to make that call.
Call Tony Caggiano Personal Injury Lawyer in Orlando, Florida at (407) 244-1212 for a free case evaluation. You can also reach us through our contact page to find out how much time is left under the Florida personal injury statute of limitations.
