Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Lawyer

A crash on I-95, Broward Boulevard or A1A starts two clocks most people never hear about until it is too late. Florida gives you 14 days to see a doctor before your own insurance benefits disappear, and two years to file a lawsuit before the claim is gone permanently.

Our attorneys handle car and auto accident claims across Broward County from our office on East Broward Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale. We have represented injured Floridians since 1988, recovered billions for our clients, and we charge no fee unless you recover money.

Key Takeaways

• Florida’s 14 day rule means you must be seen by a qualified medical provider within 14 days of the crash or you forfeit your PIP benefits entirely.
• PIP pays a maximum of $10,000, and only if a provider documents an emergency medical condition. Without that finding you are capped at $2,500.
• You can only pursue the at fault driver for pain and suffering if your injury meets Florida’s permanent injury threshold. An experienced attorney establishes this early, not at the end.

Does Florida still have no-fault insurance in 2026?

Yes. Florida’s no-fault system is still in effect and PIP coverage is still required.

This needs saying plainly because a large amount of inaccurate information is circulating. Repeal bills Senate Bill 522 and House Bill 769 both died in committee, and the 2026 legislative session ended on March 13, 2026 without any repeal passing. An earlier repeal bill was vetoed in 2021.

The practical effect for a Fort Lauderdale driver is unchanged. You are still required to carry the $10,000 minimum PIP coverage that has been law since 1971, and your own policy is still the first place your medical bills go regardless of who caused the crash. If you have read that no-fault ended, that information is wrong, and acting on it can cost you benefits you have already paid for.

What is the 14 day rule and why does it matter so much?

Under Florida Statute section 627.736, you must obtain initial medical treatment from a qualified provider within 14 days of the accident in order to be eligible for PIP benefits at all.

The clock starts on the date of the crash and runs continuously. Weekends count. Holidays count. There is no extension because a provider could not fit you in, and no exception because you felt fine at the scene.

This is the most common way people injured in Broward County crashes lose money they were entitled to. Soft tissue injuries and concussions frequently do not present symptoms for several days, so people wait, and by the time they see a doctor on day 17 the benefit is gone. Get evaluated within the first few days even if you believe you are uninjured.

Emergency medical condition: the difference between $2,500 and $10,000

Seeing a doctor inside 14 days keeps you eligible. It does not automatically unlock the full benefit.

To access the full $10,000, a qualifying provider must determine that you suffered an emergency medical condition. Florida Statute section 627.732 defines this as a condition with acute symptoms severe enough that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in serious jeopardy to your health, serious impairment to a bodily function, or serious dysfunction of a bodily organ or part.

If no emergency medical condition is documented, your PIP benefits are capped at $2,500. That is a $7,500 difference that turns on how your treatment is recorded in the first two weeks, and it is one of the main reasons to involve an attorney early rather than after the bills arrive.

When can you step outside no-fault and sue the other driver?

No-fault covers your economic losses up to your policy limit. It does not compensate you for pain, suffering, mental anguish or inconvenience, and Florida sets a specific threshold you must clear to recover those from the at fault driver.

Florida Statute section 627.737(2) allows an injured person to pursue non-economic damages from the at fault driver in four situations:

• Significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function
• Permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, other than scarring or disfigurement
• Significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement
• Death

Temporary pain, however genuine, does not clear the threshold on its own. If your injury falls into none of these categories, Florida generally limits you to economic damages paid through your own PIP coverage.

Whether you meet the threshold is a medical question answered by your records, and defense lawyers attack it aggressively. Building that record properly from the first appointment forward is a large part of what we do on a Fort Lauderdale car accident claim.

Who can be held liable for a Fort Lauderdale car accident?

The other driver is the obvious defendant. They are frequently not the only one, and they are frequently not the one carrying meaningful coverage.

Broward County produces liability questions that do not come up in most of Florida. Fort Lauderdale sits where I-95, I-595, Florida’s Turnpike and US 1 meet, and Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport push a constant stream of tractor trailers, freight vans, shuttles and ground handling vehicles onto surface streets that were not built around them. When a commercial vehicle is involved, the correct defendant is often a company rather than a person, and the coverage available is far larger.

The visitor economy adds a second layer. Cruise passengers and vacationers put a very large number of rental cars onto unfamiliar roads, particularly between the airport, the port and the beach, and a driver who has already left the state complicates every part of the claim. Seasonal population swings compound the pattern on Federal Highway, Sunrise Boulevard, Commercial Boulevard and A1A, where pedestrian and cyclist exposure is high year round and higher still in the busy season.

Other parties we routinely investigate in Broward County crashes:

• The vehicle’s owner where that is a different person from the driver, including fleet owners
• An employer, where the at fault driver was working at the time
• A trucking company or freight operator running to or from Port Everglades
• A rental car company, or the driver’s home state insurer where a visitor was at fault
• A rideshare company, where the driver was logged into the app
• A manufacturer of a defective component, particularly brakes, tires and airbags
• A bar or restaurant that over served a driver involved in a drunk driving crash
• A negligent repair shop or mechanic
• A government agency, including where a Broward County Transit bus or another publicly owned vehicle was involved

Identifying every liable party matters because commercial and government policies carry far higher limits than a typical personal auto policy, and that difference frequently determines what your case is actually worth.

Does being partly at fault reduce what you can recover?

Yes, and since 2023 the consequences are more severe than most people realize.

Florida now applies modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar. If you are found to be more than 50 percent responsible for the crash, you recover nothing at all. If you are 50 percent or less at fault, you can still recover, but your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. A $200,000 award with a 30 percent fault finding against you pays $140,000.

Before House Bill 837, Florida used pure comparative negligence and an injured person could recover something even if they were mostly to blame. That has changed how insurers approach these claims. Every insurance company now has a direct financial incentive to build a fault percentage against you, because pushing you past 50 percent eliminates their exposure completely.

Never accept an insurer’s assessment of fault, never give a recorded statement before speaking to an attorney, and never assume the police report’s conclusion is final. Crash reconstruction frequently produces a different answer than the initial report, and multi-lane interstate collisions on I-95 and I-595 are exactly the kind of crash where the first account is often wrong.

How long do you have to file a car accident lawsuit in Florida?

Two years from the date of the injury for negligence claims that accrued after March 24, 2023.

House Bill 837 cut this deadline in half. It was four years for decades and a great deal of outdated guidance still says four years. Once the statute of limitations expires your right to pursue the claim is gone permanently no matter how strong the evidence is.

Two years is less time than it sounds. Records have to be gathered, experts retained, liability investigated and damages documented before anything is filed, and claims against government entities run on shorter timelines again.

What compensation can you recover?

Where the permanent injury threshold is met, a Fort Lauderdale car accident claim can include both economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damages

The quantifiable losses: emergency treatment, surgery, hospital stays, physical therapy, prescriptions, future medical care, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, vehicle damage and out of pocket costs such as transport to appointments.

Non-economic damages

Pain and suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life and the effect of a permanent injury on your relationships and daily function. In catastrophic cases, particularly those involving traumatic brain injury or spinal cord damage, these frequently exceed the economic losses.

Punitive damages

Available only where there is clear and convincing evidence of intentional misconduct or gross negligence. Drunk driving cases are the most common example. Punitive damages punish and deter rather than compensate.

What does it cost to hire a Fort Lauderdale car accident attorney?

Nothing upfront, and nothing at all unless we recover money for you.

We work on a contingency fee. There is no hourly rate, no retainer and no invoice arriving while you are trying to recover. The initial consultation is free and carries no obligation.

Types of Fort Lauderdale car accident cases we handle

• Rear-end collisions
• Intersection and failure to yield crashes
• Head-on collisions
• Rollover accidents
• Hit-and-run crashes
• Drunk and impaired driving accidents
• Distracted and texting driver crashes
• Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims
• Rideshare accidents involving Uber and Lyft drivers
• Rental car and out of state driver collisions
• Commercial truck crashes serving Port Everglades and the airport
• Motorcycle accidents
• Pedestrian and bicycle collisions along the beach corridor and A1A
• Multi-vehicle pileups on I-95, I-595 and Florida’s Turnpike
• Fatal crashes and wrongful death claims

We handle the full range of vehicle accident claims and the premises liability side where a crash overlaps with a property owner’s negligence.

Common injuries in Fort Lauderdale car accidents

Severity is not always obvious at the scene. Adrenaline masks a great deal, and several serious injuries present late.

• Whiplash and soft tissue neck and back injuries
• Herniated and bulging discs
• Traumatic brain injury and concussion
• Spinal cord injury and paralysis
• Broken bones and complex fractures
• Internal bleeding and organ damage
• Shoulder and knee injuries requiring surgery
• Significant scarring, burns and disfigurement
• Post-traumatic stress and anxiety following a serious crash

Delayed onset injuries are why the 14 day rule causes so much damage. A concussion that becomes apparent in week two is still a real injury, but if you were not evaluated inside the window the benefit is already forfeited.

What to do after a car accident in Fort Lauderdale

1. Call 911. A Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Broward Sheriff’s Office or Florida Highway Patrol report creates the objective record your claim will be built on.
2. Get medical attention immediately, and in every case within 14 days. Tell the provider about every symptom, including ones that seem minor.
3. Photograph vehicle positions, damage to all vehicles, skid marks, road conditions, signage, traffic signals and your visible injuries.
4. Collect contact details for the other driver, any passengers and every witness. If the other driver is a visitor or in a rental vehicle, capture the rental agreement and their home address, because they may leave the state within days.
5. Note any company markings on a vehicle involved. A logo, a fleet number or a commercial plate can be the difference between a minimum policy and a commercial policy.
6. Notify your own insurer, but do not give a recorded statement to any insurance company before speaking with an attorney.
7. Keep every bill, receipt, referral and appointment record, and note every day of work missed.
8. Contact an attorney before accepting any settlement offer. Early offers are made before the full extent of an injury is known, and accepting one ends the claim.

Why work with our Fort Lauderdale team

We were founded in Florida in 1988 and our attorneys have recovered billions for injured clients. We know the Broward County court system, the local defense firms and the tactics the insurers operating in South Florida use.

Our Fort Lauderdale office is at 110 East Broward Blvd, Suite 1700, Office 1727, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301, and if you cannot come to us we will come to you at home, in hospital or at your workplace. Remote and virtual appointments are available, someone is available to answer questions 24 hours a day including nights and weekends, and se habla español.

You can reach our Fort Lauderdale office directly at 954-945-9821 or the firm at 1-800-77-LEGAL. Learn more about our Fort Lauderdale personal injury practice, find directions to our Fort Lauderdale office, meet our attorneys, review our case results or submit a free case evaluation.

Frequently Asked Questions