Florida Personal Injury Statute of Limitations [2025 Updated]

Even if a personal injury claim is valid and well-documented in Florida, if it is filed outside the window of the Florida personal injury statute of limitations, there is a very low chance it will ever see the light of day.

What Is a Statute of Limitations

In general, a statute of limitations law is a legal timeframe by which a claim against another party can be filed. In terms of the Florida personal injury statute of limitations, it is the time period following the injury event for which an injured victim can file a claim with the Florida state court to recover damages incurred by the injury.

More specifically, the appropriate court in Broward County that handles claims less than $50,000 is the County Civil/Small Claims Court. Claims that exceed $50,000 in damages should be filed with the Circuit Civil Court.

Florida Personal Injury Statute of Limitations

The general time limit for filing a personal claim in Florida is two years from the date of medical diagnosis of the injury, the date the injured individual discovered they were injured, or the date that reasonable knowledge was available about the potential for a product or incident to cause injury.

There are some instances that allow for an extended timeframe of more than two years, and an extension of two years can be requested. A personal injury lawyer is an ideal resource for finding more information about exceptions to the rule and whether they apply to a specific case.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait

Waiting to file a personal injury claim is not advantageous for several reasons. In fact, it can be damaging to your case and, ultimately, become a missed opportunity if you miss the deadline altogether. Some of the reasons why waiting to file a personal injury claim is a bad idea are explained below:

• The preservation of evidence is harder and harder as time goes by.
• Surveillance video gets deleted and recorded over.
• Physical evidence gets destroyed, cleaned, or damaged, and/or fades.
• Eyewitnesses forget the details or become hard to contact for a statement.
• Environments get improvements, and at-fault parties may even spend the two-year time limit improving their property or repairing the mistake that caused the injury to cover up their liability.
• The longer you wait, the harder it is to secure medical proof that you have a personal injury that occurred as a result of the negligent actions of another party or the faultiness of a product.

Unique Circumstances of Personal Injury Statute of Limitations

There are thousands of personal injury/product liability claims filed each year in Florida. In recent years, the Northern District of Florida court has been flooded with hundreds of thousands of claims filed in regard to 3M Combat Arms earplugs, which caused hearing loss in military members who wore them.

However, at the time of this writing, there is no finite end in sight for these claims other than Florida’s two-year statute that begins the moment the victim discovers they suffered hearing loss from using the product.

Thus, while the influx of claims filed for this particular injury has come to a lull, there will inevitably be additional claims filed for this injury because there is no way to pinpoint a time that one could definitively no longer discover hearing loss related to the product.

There will inevitably be a limit to these claims. While the gray area makes the timeframe inconclusive for now, time can run out on the validity of these claims. Anyone in this situation or a similar one should speak to a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible to avoid missing out on compensation. There is a strict deadline to file personal injury claims, and waiting too long can forfeit your right to compensation. Contact the Law Offices of John B. Ameen, P.A. today to protect your claim and get the legal guidance you need.

FAQs

Q: What Is the New Law in Florida for Personal Injury?

A: In 2023, Florida modified the laws pertaining to personal injury by adjusting the statute of limitations from four years to two years. Additionally, the state went from using pure comparative negligence to using modified comparative negligence. It is now harder to prove negligence, while at the same time, property owners must provide certain security measures to avoid liability accusations, such as security cameras, locked access, and well-lit areas.

Q: How Long Do You Have to Sue Someone for Personal Injury in Florida?

A: In Florida, the statute of limitations is two years, which means you have two years to file a claim for the compensation of losses suffered from personal injury. In 2023, the law changed to two years from four years. This reform to the previous law, in addition to other reforms to personal injury law, significantly impacted the personal injury landscape in the state.

Q: What Is the New Law in Florida for Personal Injury?

A: A significant change in Florida personal injury law reforms the existing pure comparative negligence law to modified comparative negligence. Previously, pure comparative negligence allowed for someone who was only 99% at fault for an accident to still collect 1% of the damages. The reformed law now requires a claimant to be no more than 50% at fault in an accident to collect damages via a personal injury claim.

Q: What Is the Florida Injury Threshold Statute?

A: In Florida, the injury threshold statute requires certain types of injuries to have occurred in order for an individual to recover non-economic damages in claims resulting from car accidents.

To collect these damages, such as pain and suffering, the injured victim must have one of four specific types of injuries, including permanent injury more significant than scarring, permanent and significant loss of an essential bodily function, permanent and significant disfigurement from injuries such as surgery or burns, or death.

If you have suffered injury from the neglect of another party and believe you may be entitled to compensation for your injury, speaking to a Florida personal injury lawyer whom you can trust is the most effective way to go about initiating a personal injury claim. If your accident occurred within the Florida personal injury statute of limitations, or even if it has been longer, you may be eligible for compensation.

Call The Law Offices of John D. Ameen, P.A., to discuss the details of your case. Our astute and aggressive legal team can offer invaluable advice regarding your potential Florida personal injury claim.