Auto Insurance in Florida

You may have read that Florida repealed PIP. It did not.

Repeal bills have been introduced repeatedly, one passed and was vetoed in 2021, and further attempts have died in committee since. The claim has circulated widely enough — including in search summaries — that Florida drivers now regularly believe a change happened that has not.

Florida remains a no-fault state. Personal Injury Protection is still required, along with property damage liability, and the rules around it are unchanged: the fourteen-day treatment requirement, the emergency medical condition provision that gates the full benefit, and the percentages that apply to medical costs and lost wages.

If a repeal passes in a future session, that will change. It has not yet, and a policy built on the assumption that it did would be a policy that does not comply.

Verify the current requirement with your carrier or the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation rather than with anything you read online, including this page.

What No-Fault Actually Means for You

Under the current system, your own PIP responds to your medical costs and a portion of lost wages after a crash, regardless of who caused it.

That sounds protective, and it is — up to a point. Two limits define it.

The amount. The statutory PIP requirement is a figure that does not go far against a serious injury. Emergency care, imaging, surgery, and rehabilitation exceed it quickly, and the benefit is paid at percentages rather than in full.

The threshold. No-fault generally prevents you from suing the at-fault driver for pain and suffering unless your injuries meet a serious injury threshold — permanent injury, significant scarring or disfigurement, or loss of an important bodily function.

So the system covers modest injuries adequately and serious ones poorly. What fills that gap is coverage most Florida drivers decline.

What Florida Does Not Require, and What That Costs You

Here is the part worth understanding clearly.

Bodily injury liability is not required for most Florida drivers. It protects other people from you, and Florida is one of very few states that does not mandate it. A driver carrying only the statutory minimums has no coverage for the injuries they cause to someone else.

That has a direct consequence: if you cause a serious accident with only the required coverage, the injured party’s attorney looks at your assets and your income.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is not required either. Roughly one in five Florida drivers carries no insurance at all — among the highest rates in the country.

Read those two facts together. A large share of the drivers around you carry no liability coverage, and nothing requires you to protect yourself from them.

Uninsured motorist coverage is the single most undervalued line on a Florida auto policy. It responds when the at-fault driver has nothing, and it is inexpensive relative to what it does.

The 51 Percent Rule Changed the Math

Florida moved to a modified comparative negligence standard, and it matters more than most drivers realize.

If you are found more than fifty percent at fault for your own injuries, you recover nothing from the other party. Not a reduced amount — nothing.

That gives insurers a strong incentive to build a case that you were the majority-at-fault driver, and it makes the documentation after a crash more consequential than it used to be.

Two Deadlines People Get Wrong

Fourteen days. You must seek initial medical treatment within fourteen days of a crash to qualify for PIP benefits. Miss it and the benefit is gone regardless of how legitimate the injury is. People routinely wait to see whether soreness resolves and lose the coverage.

Two years. The statute of limitations for most negligence claims in Florida is now two years, reduced from the four years many drivers still assume. That change came with the 2023 tort reform and it has caught people out.

What a Florida Auto Policy Should Actually Include

Beyond the statutory minimums:

Bodily injury liability, at limits that reflect what you have to protect rather than what the state requires.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist, given how many drivers around you carry nothing. Consider stacked coverage if you have more than one vehicle.

Medical payments, which supplements PIP without regard to fault and covers deductibles and copays PIP leaves behind.

Comprehensive, which in Florida is not optional in practice. It responds to theft, falling objects, and — importantly — flood and storm damage to the vehicle. Homeowners policies exclude flood; auto comprehensive generally does not. After a hurricane, comprehensive is what pays for a flooded car.

Collision, and a deductible you could actually fund.

Rental reimbursement and roadside assistance, both inexpensive and both used more often than any other coverage.

Gap coverage on a financed or leased vehicle, since a total loss pays actual cash value and not the loan balance.

Hurricanes and Your Car

Two points specific to Florida.

Comprehensive covers flood damage to a vehicle. That is worth knowing before a storm, because a car left in a low-lying driveway or a flood-prone garage is a total loss waiting to happen, and it is one of the few storm losses that is clearly covered.

Carriers restrict binding when a storm is tracking. Adding comprehensive coverage as a system approaches generally will not work. Like flood insurance on a home, the time to arrange it is before the season.

Move the car if you can. Comprehensive pays, but not having the claim is better.

Where an Umbrella Fits

For most households, the auto policy is the largest liability exposure they have — larger than the home.

A serious injury accident can exceed a primary bodily injury limit before the medical bills are finished, and what a judgment reaches is savings, investments, and future income.

A personal umbrella extends the limit above your auto and homeowners policies together, and it is the cheapest additional protection most households can buy. It generally requires raising the underlying auto limits first, which is inexpensive and worth doing on its own.

Worth Reviewing

• What are your bodily injury liability limits, and do they reflect what you have to protect?

• Do you carry uninsured motorist coverage, and is it stacked?

• Is comprehensive in place, given flood exposure?

• Do you have gap coverage on anything financed?

• Is your deductible a number you could fund tomorrow?

• Are the limits consistent across every vehicle in the household?

• Is there an umbrella above it?

Auto Insurance in Florida

Atlantis Insurance places personal auto coverage for drivers across the Treasure Coast — Stuart, Palm City, Jensen Beach, Hobe Sound, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, and Vero Beach — along with Jupiter and Palm Beach County, and on Florida’s west coast in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Port Charlotte, and New Port Richey.

For most households the auto policy, the homeowners policy, and the umbrella above them are one conversation. Reviewing them separately is how the inconsistencies survive.

850 NW Federal Highway, Suite 129, Stuart, FL 34994

561-983-4333

General information only, not legal advice. Florida insurance requirements and statutory provisions change, and repeal legislation has been introduced in multiple sessions. Confirm current requirements with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation or your agent, and refer to your policy for the terms that apply to you.