Under Florida’s no-fault insurance system, victims of car accidents in Tampa and elsewhere in the state must file a claim against their insurance policy before seeking further damages from the at-fault driver. Our Tampa car accident lawyer can help.
What Does Personal Injury Protection Cover for Tampa Car Accident Victims?
No-fault insurance is a category of insurance that covers certain damages for the driver of a vehicle, regardless of who is at fault for the car accident. In Florida, no-fault insurance is called personal injury protection or PIP. As the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) explains, drivers must maintain $10,000 in PIP. Additionally, under financial responsibility laws, drivers must carry $10,000 in property damage insurance to cover victims whose property they damage.
PIP in Florida covers medical expenses, lost income, and replacement services for drivers and their household members who are victims of car accidents. If you suffered injuries in a car accident and you have PIP coverage, your insurance will cover:
- 80% of your medical expenses up to policy limits
- 60% of your lost wages from missing work up to policy limits
- 100% of your replacement household services up to policy limits
Why Does Florida Use a No-Fault Insurance System?
The state implemented no-fault insurance in the 1970s to provide drivers access to medical treatment funds without waiting for claim approval from a third-party insurance company. If drivers could file a claim against their insurance immediately after a crash, there would be fewer ambulance chasers scheming to get car accident victims to file a claim against someone else and fewer lawsuits overall clogging up the courts.
Of course, time has revealed that anyone who wants to commit fraud will find a way to exploit the insurance system regardless, but that’s another story.
How Does Florida’s No-fault Insurance System Affect Tampa Car Accident Victims?
Florida’s no-fault insurance is somewhat of a double-edged sword. It allows car accident victims to file a compensation claim for their crash-related losses with relative ease. A driver needs only contact their insurer to confirm there is proper documentation and verification of the covered losses they’ve suffered. Since fault is not a factor in whether your claim gets approved, you don’t have to worry about the insurer trying to pin the blame for the crash on you to reduce its liability and pay out less money.
Whether you were 5% to blame or the crash was 100% your fault, it legally does not matter. You can, in theory, recover your money faster because you won’t have to wait for the insurance adjuster to determine liability, which can drag out a third-party claim.
You may be able to recover quickly, but the $10,000 limit is seldom enough to cover the full extent of the medical bills or lost income that car accident victims experience. Even if it was, PIP only covers a certain percentage of each type of damage. If your medical bills exceed $8,000 and your lost income exceeds $6,000, you’ll have to look outside your insurance to cover it. And what if you have damages outside of just medical expenses, lost income, and replacement services? What if you’ve incurred other bills for travel costs? Or what if you experience pain and suffering?
Going Outside the No-Fault System
You must recover any damages that fall outside the parameters of PIP from the at-fault party through an insurance claim, direct lawsuit, or uninsured/underinsured motorist protection (UM/UIM). Here’s the problem: Drivers in Florida do not have to have bodily injury liability insurance except under specific circumstances.
As a result, the at-fault driver may not have any third-party insurance to cover your damages beyond property damage. You’ll have to sue them personally to recover anything, but here’s the problem: they may not have the money or assets to pay you.
If you have UM/UIM coverage, you could recover all your damages from it up to policy limits, but Florida doesn’t require this insurance, so you may not have it.
Recovering Pain and Suffering After a Car Accident in Tampa Under No-Fault Insurance
Tampa car accident victims covered by PIP who want to claim damages for pain and suffering must meet certain requirements first. Florida Statutes § 627.737 stipulates that these victims must meet the serious injury threshold to sue for pain and suffering or claim it under their UM/UIM coverage. The law states that the victim must have suffered bodily injury, sickness, or disease that:
- Consists of significant and permanent loss of a bodily function
- Is permanent within a reasonable degree of medical probability
- Involves permanent scarring or disfigurement
- Leads to death
Under the no-fault insurance system, car accident victims may not be able to collect pain and suffering even for viable injuries if they cannot prove the above criteria. This can be a tricky area of the law. The serious injury threshold does not apply to all car accident victims in Florida, so it may be wise to obtain a Tampa personal injury lawyer to help you understand your rights and legal options if you’ve been injured.
HB 837 Could Affect Your Ability to Sue If You Must Step Outside the ‘No-Fault’ System
House Bill 837 (also called HB 837), which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in March 2023, could affect your recovery after a Tampa car accident. People who meet the serious injury threshold and can go outside the no-fault system must now show how someone’s accident or negligence harmed them and that the opposing party’s percentage of fault is greater.
According to the new law, if the person suing for damages is more than 50% responsible for a car accident, they cannot recover damages from the other party. The law also requires plaintiffs in injury cases to show evidence of the medical payments made, regardless of the payment source. The medical service payments must be the actual amount paid, not estimates.
Call Our Law Office for Help With a Tampa Car Accident Case – We’re Ready to Help You
If you have suffered injuries or damages in an auto crash in Tampa, our lawyer can help you navigate the claims process and recover the money you deserve. We can also explain recent changes in Florida’s personal injury laws and how they could affect your case. Call The Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine today for a free consultation to get started.
