The minutes and days right after a crash decide more about your case than almost anything that happens later. Most people are shaken, in pain, and unsure what to say — and the choices they make in that fog can quietly cost them. This is a clear, step-by-step guide to exactly what to do after an accident in Florida, written for an injured Broward resident by an attorney who has handled these cases here for more than 40 years. Follow the steps in order, and protect your health and your rights at the same time.
Here is the hard truth about injury claims: the strongest evidence exists right after the accident, and it starts disappearing almost immediately. Surveillance video gets recorded over in days. Skid marks fade. Witnesses leave and forget. Your own memory of what happened is sharpest in the first hours and grows fuzzier from there. And the insurance company on the other side knows all of this — it is part of why a fast, low settlement offer so often shows up before you even understand how hurt you are.
You cannot control the accident. You can control what you do next. The steps below are the same things we tell our own clients to do, in the order that matters. None of them require a law degree. What they require is doing them promptly — because in Florida, the law rewards the person who acts and quietly punishes the person who waits.
One thing to settle up front, so it does not stop you from getting help: personal injury cases are handled on contingency. That means there is no fee unless we recover for you, and the first conversation — the case review — is free, confidential, and same-day. You never have to risk money out of pocket just to find out where you stand.
If you can do nothing else, do these seven things. They protect your safety first, then your health, then your legal rights — in that order, because that is the order that matters.
Check yourself and anyone with you for injuries. If you can move safely, get out of traffic — onto the shoulder or sidewalk. Then call 911. Always. Even for what looks like a minor crash, an official police report creates the record your claim is built on, and Florida law requires reporting crashes that cause injury or significant damage. Do not let the other driver talk you out of calling.
See a doctor even if you feel fine. Adrenaline hides injuries, and head, neck, and back damage often shows up a day or two later. For car crashes there is a hard rule: Florida's no-fault law requires you to get initial medical care within 14 days or your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits can be denied entirely. Going to the emergency room or an urgent-care clinic that day also ties your injury to the crash in the record.
Use your phone. Photograph everything — both vehicles, the damage, the road, traffic signs and lights, skid marks, your visible injuries, and the surrounding area. Get the other driver's name, license, plate, and insurance card (photograph it). Then look for witnesses and get their names and phone numbers before they leave. Witnesses who walk away are usually gone for good.
Notify your own insurer promptly, as your policy requires. But when the other driver's insurance company calls — and they will, often within a day — do not give a recorded statement. You are not required to, and that call is built to get you to say something that shrinks your claim while you are still rattled. Be polite, get their claim number, and tell them your attorney will follow up.
This is the step most people miss. Surveillance footage from a nearby business or traffic camera may be the proof that wins your case — but it is often overwritten within days. Do not repair or junk your vehicle until it has been documented; the damage tells the story of the crash. The sooner a lawyer can send a letter demanding evidence be preserved, the more of it survives.
Since the 2023 law changes, you generally have just two years to file a negligence claim — cut from four. Know what coverage applies, too: your PIP pays first regardless of fault, and Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage protects you when the at-fault driver has little or no insurance. Many Floridians have UM coverage and do not know it.
You do not have to figure all of this out alone, and waiting only costs you. A free consultation tells you whether you have a case, what to do next, and what to avoid. From there, a lawyer can preserve evidence, deal with the adjusters, and value your claim correctly — all before the trail goes cold. Because the work is on contingency, the call costs you nothing.
Of all seven steps, getting medical attention is the one with the most at stake, for two separate reasons. The first is your health. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions, and spinal damage frequently do not hurt at the scene — adrenaline masks them — and then surface a day or two later, sometimes worse than they first appear. Getting checked promptly catches problems early, when they are most treatable.
The second reason is legal, and it is specific to Florida. Under the state's no-fault insurance law, every driver carries Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, which pays your initial medical bills and lost wages no matter who caused the crash. But that coverage comes with a strict condition: you must get initial medical care within 14 days of the accident. Miss that window and the insurer can deny the entire PIP claim — even if your injuries are real and serious.
Read 14 days literally. It is 14 calendar days from the date of the crash, not from the day the pain finally got bad enough to bother you. That is exactly the trap: people feel sore but functional, decide to wait and see, and by the time they seek care the window has closed. If you were in a crash, see a doctor, an urgent-care clinic, or an emergency room promptly — that visit protects both your recovery and your benefits.
One important exception that surprises people: motorcycles are not covered by Florida PIP. If you were riding a motorcycle, the no-fault system does not apply to you the same way, which usually means looking to the at-fault driver's insurance sooner rather than later. The deeper details of how no-fault coverage works are spelled out on our motor vehicle accident hub, and the rules specific to car crashes are covered on the car accidents page.
Each step above traces back to a specific Florida law. These are the ones that control your benefits, your deadline, and how much of any award you actually keep. Two of the most important were rewritten in 2023. Here they are, cited so you can look them up yourself.
Fla. Stat. 627.736
Every Florida driver must carry at least $10,000 in Personal Injury Protection (PIP), which pays your first medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault. The catch tied to Step 2: you must get initial care within 14 days of the crash, or the insurer can deny the whole PIP claim. Motorcycles are not covered by PIP.
Fla. Stat. 627.737
No-fault keeps minor cases out of court — but a serious injury lets you step outside PIP and pursue the at-fault driver directly for pain and suffering. You generally cross this threshold with a permanent injury, significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, significant scarring or disfigurement, or death.
Fla. Stat. 95.11(4)(a) Amended 2023
The single biggest change for most accident victims. Florida cut the deadline to file most negligence claims from four years to two years (House Bill 837, effective March 24, 2023). Miss it and your claim is gone for good, no matter how strong. Crashes before that date may still fall under the old rule — another reason not to guess.
Fla. Stat. 768.81 Amended 2023
Florida uses modified comparative negligence: your recovery is reduced by your share of the fault — 20% at fault, 20% less. As of the 2023 changes (House Bill 837, effective March 24, 2023), if you are found more than 50% at fault, you recover nothing. This is exactly why Step 4 — saying very little — matters so much.
Fla. Stat. 768.0755
If your accident was a fall in a store, Florida puts the burden on you to prove the business knew or should have known about the dangerous condition — that the spill sat long enough that a careful store should have caught it. Surveillance video and incident reports vanish fast, which is why Step 5 is urgent in these cases.
Fla. Stat. 627.748
If a rideshare vehicle was involved, the insurance that applies depends on what the driver's app was doing at the moment of the crash — offline, waiting for a ride request, or actively carrying a passenger. Each phase carries different coverage. Documenting the scene (Step 3) helps establish which phase was in play.
Note: some accidents run on their own clock. Medical malpractice, for example, is generally two years from when the harm was discovered, with an outer limit, and carries its own presuit steps (Florida Statutes section 95.11(4)(b) and Chapter 766). On-the-job injuries must usually be reported to your employer within 30 days (Chapter 440). Always confirm your specific deadline with an attorney.
Doing the right things matters. So does avoiding the wrong ones — and the mistakes below are the ones we see quietly sink otherwise strong cases. None of them feel like a mistake in the moment. That is exactly why they are dangerous.
It is human to say “I’m so sorry” after a crash, even when it was not your fault. But anything you say at the scene can be twisted into an admission and used to push blame onto you. Because of Florida’s 51% bar, how fault gets divided can be the difference between a full recovery and nothing. Check on everyone, be kind, but do not discuss who caused the accident — not with the other driver, and not with their insurer.
The other driver’s insurance company is not on your side, no matter how friendly the adjuster sounds. You are under no obligation to give them a recorded statement, and that call exists to lock you into a version of events — or to catch you minimizing your injuries while you still feel okay. Politely decline and let your attorney handle the conversation.
A fast settlement offer is almost always a low one. Insurers know that money looks tempting when you are hurt and bills are coming, and they know you may not yet understand how serious your injury is or what your future care will cost. Once you sign a release, the case is over — you cannot reopen it if your injury turns out worse than expected. Know the full value of your claim before you accept anything.
Assume the insurance company is watching your Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — because they often are. A single photo of you smiling at a barbecue, or a post saying you’re “doing fine,” can be used to argue your injuries are not real. The safest move after an accident is to stop posting entirely until your case is resolved, and never discuss the crash or your injuries online.
Waiting is the most common and most costly mistake of all. Every day that passes, evidence degrades, deadlines creep closer, and the 14-day medical window shrinks. With the statute of limitations now just two years, there is far less room for “I’ll deal with it later” than there used to be. The sooner you act, the stronger your position.
This guide provides general information about Florida law and is not legal advice. Your specific situation requires a consultation.
Two pieces of knowledge do more to protect an injured Floridian than almost anything else: how long you have to act, and what insurance actually applies. People lose good cases by getting either one wrong.
For most accident claims based on negligence, you now have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit (Florida Statutes section 95.11(4)(a), as amended by House Bill 837 effective March 24, 2023). This was four years until the 2023 change, and a lot of people still believe they have the old, longer window. They do not. Miss the deadline and the court will not hear your case, period — which is why knowing your date, and acting well before it, is so important.
Not every accident runs on the two-year clock. Wrongful death claims, claims against a government entity, and medical malpractice each follow different rules and timelines. If you are unsure which applies to you, that uncertainty is itself a reason to talk to a lawyer early. You can read more about how all of this fits together in our full guide to Florida personal injury law.
After a car crash, your own Personal Injury Protection pays first — your initial medical bills and a portion of lost wages — regardless of who caused the accident. That is the trade-off of the no-fault system.
But PIP is limited, and a serious injury blows past it quickly. That is where Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage (UM/UIM) becomes critical. It is optional coverage on your own policy that steps in when the at-fault driver has no insurance or not enough to cover your losses — which, in Florida, happens far more often than people expect. Many drivers carry UM coverage without realizing it. After any serious crash, it is worth checking every policy in your household, because that coverage may be the difference between a real recovery and an empty judgment against someone who cannot pay.
Not every accident needs a lawyer. A minor fender-bender where you feel fine and your own PIP covers a visit or two is something you may well handle yourself. But there are clear signals that you should at least get a free consultation before you sign or say anything:
The honest reason to hire a lawyer is leverage. An insurance adjuster does this every single day, and the system is built to favor the side with more experience and more patience. A lawyer levels that. We deal with the adjusters, preserve the proof before it disappears, value the claim correctly, and — because the other side knows we are willing to try the case — we are far more likely to get you a fair number. And because injury work is done on contingency, hiring us costs you nothing unless we recover for you.
Robert DiStefano has represented injured people in Broward County for more than 40 years. If you want to know where you stand, you can read about Robert here, or just call. The first conversation is free, confidential, and same-day — and it is the fastest way to stop guessing about your rights.
Free, confidential, same-day case review. No fee unless we recover for you. Forty years of Florida personal injury experience, right here in Fort Lauderdale.
(954) 572-8000