Most crashes follow a familiar pattern. Adrenaline hides the pain at the scene. By the next morning your neck is stiff, your lower back aches, and an adjuster for the other driver's insurance company is calling to ask for a recorded statement. Within a week the other car is in a body shop, the intersection video has been recorded over, and the witnesses are hard to reach.
What you do in those first days shapes two separate claims: your own personal injury protection (PIP) benefits, and a claim against the driver who caused the crash. The steps below are built around both.
1. Stay at the scene, exchange information, and get a police report
Florida requires a driver involved in a crash that causes injury, death, or property damage to give his or her name, address, and vehicle registration number, to show a driver license on request, and to render reasonable assistance to anyone injured, including arranging transportation for medical treatment when it appears necessary (§ 316.062(1)). Photograph the other driver's license, registration, insurance card, and plate.
Call law enforcement. When a crash involves death, personal injury, or any complaint of pain or discomfort, or leaves a vehicle that needs a wrecker, the investigating officer must complete a long-form crash report (§ 316.066(1)). Write down the officer's name, agency, and report number. Crash reports are confidential for 60 days after filing, but the parties, their lawyers, and their insurers can obtain them during that period (§ 316.066(2)).
Florida law generally keeps what you tell the officer for the crash report from being used as evidence at trial (§ 316.066(4)). That protection does not cover what you say to the other driver, to bystanders, or to an insurance adjuster. Stick to facts. Do not apologize, and do not guess about speed or distance.
2. Get medical care within 14 days
PIP pays medical benefits only if you receive initial services and care "within 14 days" after the accident (§ 627.736(1)(a)). If you wait, you can lose those benefits entirely.
Go to the emergency room, an urgent care center, or your physician as soon as you can, even if the pain seems minor. The amount PIP will pay also turns on what the provider finds. Reimbursement can reach the full $10,000 limit when a qualifying provider determines you had an emergency medical condition; it is "limited to $2,500" when the provider determines there was none (§ 627.736(1)(a)3. and 4.). Describe every symptom, including headaches, numbness, and dizziness.
“within 14 days”
§ 627.736(1)(a)
“limited to $2,500”
§ 627.736(1)(a)
3. Preserve the vehicles, the video, and the data
Before anything is repaired or salvaged:
- Photograph every vehicle from all sides, including the interior, the airbags, and the seat belts.
- Photograph the scene: skid marks, debris, traffic signals, signs, sight lines, and road conditions.
- Note every business, home, and traffic camera that faced the crash. Many systems record over footage within days, so written preservation requests have to go out quickly.
- Save your own dashcam footage and phone photos in their original form.
- Ask your insurer not to destroy or sell your vehicle until its airbag control module, which can record speed and braking in the seconds before impact, has been downloaded.
4. Notify your own insurer and be careful with the other driver's insurer
Report the crash promptly to your own insurer, which handles your PIP claim. Give the basic facts.
The other driver's insurer is evaluating how little it can pay. We recommend that you not give that adjuster a recorded statement, sign a broad medical authorization, or accept an early offer. Once you sign a release, the claim is over, even if you later learn you need surgery. Refer those calls to your lawyer.
5. Document how the injury affects your life
Florida limits who can recover damages for pain, suffering, mental anguish, and inconvenience from a driver who carries the required PIP security. The injury must consist in whole or in part of one of four categories, including "Permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement" and "Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement" (§ 627.737(2)). That showing comes from your treating physicians and your medical records, so consistent treatment matters.
Keep a simple file: a short daily note on pain and limits, every bill and receipt, mileage to appointments, and records of missed work. PIP disability benefits cover "Sixty percent of any loss of gross income and loss of earning capacity," along with reasonable expenses for household services you can no longer perform (§ 627.736(1)(b)).
“Permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement”
§ 627.737(2)
“Sixty percent of any loss of gross income and loss of earning capacity,”
§ 627.736(1)(b)
The Florida rules that matter
- PIP benefits. A Florida auto policy must provide personal injury protection with a $10,000 limit for medical and disability benefits and a $5,000 death benefit (§ 627.736(1)). Medical benefits cover 80 percent of reasonable expenses for medically necessary care (§ 627.736(1)(a)).
- The tort threshold. Damages payable by PIP are exempt from a tort claim against an insured owner or driver (§ 627.737(1)). Pain and suffering damages require one of the four injury categories in § 627.737(2), one of which is death.
- Deadline to sue. An action founded on negligence generally must be filed within two years (§ 95.11(5)(a)).
- Comparative fault. Your own share of fault reduces your damages proportionately (§ 768.81(2)). If you are found more than 50 percent at fault for your own harm, you "may not recover any damages" (§ 768.81(6)).
- Government vehicles. If a city bus, county truck, or state vehicle was involved, a written claim must be presented to the agency, and in many cases to the Department of Financial Services, before suit (§ 768.28(6)(a)).
“may not recover any damages”
§ 627.736(1)
Your checklist
- Exchange information, photograph the other driver's documents, call police, and get the report number.
- See a doctor within 14 days and describe every symptom.
- Photograph the vehicles and the scene, and list every camera that may have recorded the crash.
- Ask that your vehicle be held until its crash data is downloaded.
- Report to your own insurer; decline recorded statements to the other driver's insurer.
- Keep a file of bills, receipts, mileage, missed work, and a short daily pain note.
- Call a lawyer well before the two-year deadline.
How we handle these cases
We start by protecting the evidence: preservation letters for video and vehicle data, the crash report, and a full picture of every insurance policy that may apply, including your own uninsured motorist coverage. We track the 14-day PIP rule and the medical documentation from the beginning so that the permanency question is answered by your treating physicians, not by an adjuster. Josef Timlichman Law, PLLC is a Florida trial firm handling cases throughout the state, including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. Meetings are by appointment only. Call 305-748-3789.
This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.