How Long Do You Have to File a Florida Injury Claim? Every 2026 Deadline

The general rule: two years for most injuries (since 2023)

For negligence claims — the category that covers most car, truck, motorcycle, and slip-and-fall cases — Florida now gives you two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. That comes from Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a), as amended by the 2023 tort-reform law (HB 837). The change applies to claims that accrued on or after March 24, 2023. If your injury happened before that date, the old four-year deadline generally still applies.

Two years sounds like plenty of time. It isn’t. Evidence disappears, witnesses move, and the work of building a serious claim — medical records, experts, reconstruction — takes months before a suit is even filed.

Wrongful death: two years from the date of death

A Florida wrongful-death claim must be filed within two years (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(e)). Note the trigger: the clock runs from the date of death, which is not always the date of the injury that caused it. These claims belong to the estate and surviving family, and the timeline interacts with probate, so early advice matters.

Medical malpractice: two years, with a four-year cap

Medical-negligence claims run two years from when you knew or should have known of the injury, but with an outer limit of four years from the incident itself (Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(c)). There are narrow exceptions — fraud or concealment can extend it, and claims involving injured children have special rules — but the four-year repose is a hard wall in most cases.

Product liability: short, contested, and capped at 12 years

If a defective product hurt you, the filing deadline is short and genuinely contested after the 2023 reform, which is why our product-liability page treats it as fact-specific rather than a single number. On top of the filing deadline sits a separate hard cutoff: Florida’s 12-year statute of repose (Fla. Stat. § 95.031) bars most product claims twelve years after the product was first delivered — regardless of when you were hurt.

Claims against a Florida government agency: extra hoops

If a city, county, or state vehicle or property caused your injury, sovereign immunity adds steps that can quietly end a claim. Under Fla. Stat. § 768.28, you generally must serve a written pre-suit notice on the agency (and, for state agencies, the Department of Financial Services) and wait out an investigation period before you can sue. Damages recoverable from the government are also capped. Blow the notice requirement and the courthouse door closes, even inside the normal limitations period.

Why insurers quietly count on the calendar

I spent two decades on the defense side, and the deadline is one of the insurer’s best friends. Pleasant phone calls, slow document requests, “we’re still reviewing” — delay costs them nothing and costs you everything, because the day the statute of limitations runs, your leverage drops to zero. Settlement talks do not pause the clock. Only filing a lawsuit does.

What “the deadline” actually requires

Meeting the deadline means a lawsuit is filed with the court before it expires — not that you reported the crash, opened a claim, or were “in negotiations.” Because the rules above overlap and the exceptions are narrow, the safe move is to treat your case as if the deadline is sooner than you think and get it evaluated early. It costs nothing to find out where your clock stands.

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