The checklist · Organized by clock, not by topic
What to Do After a Car Accident in Florida
Everything on this page exists to protect two things: your health and the evidence your claim will be built from. Florida's system rewards people who handle the first hour, the first week, and the first month in the right order, and quietly punishes everyone else through deadlines most drivers have never heard of. Here is the whole sequence.
- Hour 1safety, the report, and evidence that disappears
- Week 1insurers, paperwork, and what not to say
- Day 14the PIP medical deadline (Fla. Stat. 627.736)
- Year 2the lawsuit deadline (Fla. Stat. 95.11)
If anyone may be seriously injured, 911 outranks every word on this page.
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Check your Florida accident deadlines
Enter the date of your crash. This calculates the two deadlines Florida law puts on your claim: the 14-day medical window under Fla. Stat. 627.736 and the lawsuit deadline under Fla. Stat. 95.11. The math runs in your browser, and nothing you type leaves this page.
This is a calendar calculation for general information, not legal advice, and it does not account for every situation. Claims against government entities, wrongful death claims, and cases with tolling or minor claimants follow different schedules. Confirm any deadline with a licensed Florida attorney before relying on it.
The first hour: at the scene
Make the scene safe and call 911
Move drivable vehicles out of travel lanes; secondary collisions injure people who survived the first one. Florida requires reporting crashes involving injury or significant damage, and the 911 call creates the official record's first timestamp.
Photograph like the case depends on it
All four corners of every vehicle, wide shots placing the scene, skid marks, debris fields, traffic signals, license plates, and visible injuries. Fault percentages get argued months later from exactly these images, and the scene sweeps itself clean within the hour.
Collect people, not just paper
License, insurance, and plate from every driver, and names with phone numbers from witnesses before they drive off. Under Florida's 50% fault bar, one independent witness can be the difference between a claim and nothing.
Give facts, not verdicts
Tell the officer what happened. Skip apologies, fault theories, and diagnoses of your own condition; "I'm fine" said at the scene has a long memory in claims files. Fault is allocated from evidence later, not declared on the shoulder of the road.
The first week: reports and insurers
Get the crash report in motion. Florida crash reports are requested through the FLHSMV crash records portal, generally becoming available about ten days after the crash for roughly $10 plus a small convenience fee. For the first 60 days access is restricted to involved parties and their representatives under Fla. Stat. 316.066, so have identification ready. If police never responded, file the state's self-report form through the same site; a crash with no report of any kind becomes a swearing match later.
Notify your own insurer promptly. Your policy requires timely notice, and since Florida is a no-fault state, your own PIP coverage is the first payer for medical care regardless of fault. Report facts: when, where, vehicles involved, visible damage, and that you are being evaluated medically.
Be careful with the other side's insurer. You have no obligation to give the at-fault driver's carrier a recorded statement, and the first week is the worst time to do it. Injuries have not finished declaring themselves, and a cheerful recorded "just sore" becomes an exhibit against the diagnosis that arrives on day ten. Decline politely or keep strictly to the basic facts.
Start the file
One folder, physical or on your phone: scene photos, the report number, everyone's information, medical paperwork as it accumulates, receipts, and missed-work records. Every later stage of the claim gets easier and cheaper with this file already built.
Day 14: the deadline that does not forgive
Within 14 calendar days of the crash, you must receive initial medical care from a qualifying provider, a hospital or EMS, a physician, a dentist, or a licensed chiropractor, or your PIP benefits are forfeited under Fla. Stat. 627.736. Up to $10,000 in no-fault coverage rides on that one appointment, and the statute contains no exception for delayed symptoms, busy schedules, or good intentions.
This deadline earns its own guide because it is both the most missed and the most mechanical: crash-injury symptoms routinely take days to surface, people wait to see how they feel, and day 15 arrives with everything forfeited. The 14-day rule guide covers what qualifies, the $2,500 emergency-condition trap inside the rule, and what the deadline does to settlement value.
The short version: get examined this week, even if you feel mostly fine. The exam either protects your benefits and starts a clean record, or it is a short appointment and good news.
The first month: positioning the claim
Follow the treatment plan without gaps. The medical record being built right now is the claim. Missed appointments and multi-week holes get read as recovery, whatever the actual reason, and the whiplash guide shows how systematically insurers use them.
Track the money as it happens. Out-of-pocket costs, mileage to appointments, missed shifts with pay stubs, and employer confirmation of time lost. PIP pays 60% of documented lost wages within its cap; undocumented losses are just losses.
Understand what you are not obligated to sign. Broad medical authorizations from the other side's insurer, early settlement releases, and recorded statement requests can all wait until you understand the claim's shape. A release signed in week three covers whatever the MRI finds in week six, permanently.
Decide about representation on your own timeline. For clearly minor claims, some people proceed alone. For real injuries, disputed fault, or thin coverage on the other side, a consultation with a licensed Florida attorney costs nothing and the earlier it happens, the more of the evidence window it can still use. The lawsuit guide explains the leverage math either way.
After-a-crash questions
The other driver wants to handle it without insurance. Should I agree?
No. Cash-at-the-scene arrangements collapse as soon as hidden vehicle damage or delayed injuries surface, and by then there is no report, no record, and no recourse. Exchange information, file the report, and let the system you both already pay for do its job.
Do I need a police report for a minor crash?
If officers respond, you get one; if they do not, Florida's self-report form through FLHSMV fills the gap and you should file it. Minor crashes generate a surprising share of injury claims precisely because nobody braced for impact, and the report you almost skipped becomes the document everything else refers back to.
Should I talk to the other driver's insurance company when they call?
You can confirm the basic facts, and nothing more is owed. Decline recorded statements early on, do not speculate about fault or your medical condition, and never accept a settlement figure in that first friendly call. Their adjuster's job is closing the claim inexpensively; your job in week one is treatment and documentation.
What if the crash was partly my fault?
Your PIP benefits are unaffected; no-fault coverage pays regardless. For the claim against the other driver, Florida reduces recovery by your fault percentage and bars it entirely above 50% under Fla. Stat. 768.81. Which is exactly why the scene evidence and witnesses from the first hour matter: fault percentages are built from them.
When exactly does the two-year lawsuit clock run out?
Two years from the crash date for negligence claims accruing on or after March 24, 2023, under Fla. Stat. 95.11. Treat the practical deadline as much earlier, since cases need months of assembly before filing, and note that claims involving government vehicles or wrongful death run on different schedules. Older articles saying four years predate the 2023 reform.
Primary sources: Fla. Stat. 627.736 (PIP and the 14-day requirement), Fla. Stat. 316.066 (crash reports and the 60-day access restriction), Fla. Stat. 768.81 (comparative fault), Fla. Stat. 95.11 (limitations period), and the FLHSMV crash records portal. Statute text at Online Sunshine. General information, not legal advice. Last reviewed August 1, 2026.