Miami Car Accident Lawyer

A car accident in Miami starts two clocks that most people never hear about until it is too late. Florida gives you 14 days to be seen by a doctor before your own insurance benefits disappear, and two years to file a lawsuit before the claim is gone permanently. Miss either one and the strength of your case stops mattering.

Our South Florida attorneys handle car and auto accident claims across Miami-Dade County from our office on South Dadeland Boulevard. 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, including on competing law firm websites. Repeal bills including 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.

Every Florida driver is 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 after a crash regardless of who caused it. 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 and only started hurting in week three.

This is the most common way people injured in Miami crashes lose money they were entitled to. Soft tissue injuries and concussions frequently do not present symptoms for several days. People wait, assume the stiffness will pass, 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 entirely 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. To recover those, you have to step outside the no-fault system, and Florida sets a specific threshold for that.

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 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 Miami car accident claim.

Who can be held liable for a Miami car accident?

The other driver is the obvious defendant. In Miami-Dade they are frequently not the only one, and frequently not the one with meaningful coverage.

I-95 through downtown, the Palmetto Expressway, the Dolphin Expressway, US 1 and South Dixie Highway, Biscayne Boulevard and the Julia Tuttle and MacArthur causeways carry an unusual mix of daily commuters, commercial freight moving through the port and airport corridors, and visitors driving rental cars on a road network they have never seen. A tourist committing to the wrong lane at an expressway split is a different liability picture from a local rear-end collision, and it is investigated differently.

Miami also carries a heavy concentration of rideshare and delivery vehicles, and uninsured and underinsured motorist rates in Miami-Dade are high enough that finding every available policy is often the difference between a recovery and nothing at all. When the at fault driver has no coverage, your own uninsured motorist policy becomes the case, and your insurer will treat it like any other adversary.

Other parties we routinely investigate in Miami-Dade crashes:

• The vehicle’s owner where that is a different person from the driver, including employers, rental companies and fleet owners
• An employer, where the at fault driver was working at the time
• A rideshare or delivery company, where the driver was logged into the app
• A commercial trucking company operating in the port and airport freight corridors
• A manufacturer of a defective component, particularly brakes, tires and airbags
• A bar or restaurant that over served a driver later involved in a drunk driving crash
• A negligent repair shop or mechanic
• A government agency, including where a Metrobus or other publicly owned vehicle was involved, or where a hazardous road condition, missing signage or a defective traffic signal contributed to the crash

Claims against a government entity carry notice deadlines that are shorter and stricter than an ordinary claim, and missing one ends the claim regardless of fault. Identifying every liable party matters because commercial, rental and government policies carry far higher limits than a typical personal auto policy, and that difference frequently determines what your case is 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. Medical malpractice claims are the exception and still run on pure comparative negligence.

Before House Bill 837 took effect, Florida used pure comparative negligence and an injured person could recover something even if they were mostly to blame. That is no longer the case. Every insurer 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, and never give a recorded statement before speaking to an attorney. Crash reconstruction frequently produces a different answer than the police report, particularly in multi-vehicle expressway collisions where the sequence of impacts is not obvious at the scene.

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. Relying on that is catastrophic, because 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 once records, experts, liability investigation and damages documentation are factored in. Wrongful death claims and claims against government entities run on shorter timelines again.

What compensation can you recover?

Where the permanent injury threshold is met, a Miami 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

These cover 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. These damages exist to punish and deter rather than to compensate.

What does it cost to hire a Miami 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. Our fee comes out of the recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe us nothing. The initial consultation is free and carries no obligation.

Types of Miami 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 and delivery driver accidents involving Uber, Lyft and app based couriers
• Rental car and visiting driver collisions
• Commercial truck accidents in the port and airport freight corridors
• Motorcycle accidents
• Pedestrian and bicycle collisions
• Multi-vehicle pileups on I-95 and the expressway system
• Fatal crashes and wrongful death claims

See our full range of vehicle accident practice areas.

Common injuries in Miami 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
• Chest and rib injuries from seatbelt and airbag loading
• 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 Miami

1. Call 911 and report the crash. A Florida Highway Patrol, Miami-Dade Police or City of Miami Police 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 minor ones.
3. Photograph everything: vehicle positions, damage, skid marks, road conditions, signage, traffic signals and your visible injuries.
4. Collect names and contact details for the other driver, any passengers and every witness. Visiting drivers leave the state within days.
5. Note whether the other vehicle was a rental, a rideshare, a delivery vehicle or a commercial truck, and photograph any company markings or door numbers. That detail identifies a second 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 Miami team

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

Our Miami office is at 9130 S. Dadeland Blvd, Penthouse Suite, Miami, FL 33156, 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. Se habla español.

You can reach our Miami office directly at 305-564-6186 or the firm at 1-800-77-LEGAL. Learn more about our Miami personal injury practice, find our Miami office details, review our case results or submit a free case evaluation.

Frequently asked questions