Florida's Two-Year Personal Injury Statute of Limitations After HB 837 — Deadlines with Examples

On March 24, 2023, Florida enacted House Bill 837, one of the most consequential tort reform laws in state history. Among its most significant changes: the deadline to file most personal injury lawsuits was cut in half, from four years to two years. For anyone injured in Miami — in a car crash on the Palmetto Expressway, a fall at a Brickell condominium, or an incident at a South Beach hotel — this change dramatically compresses the window to protect your legal rights. Missing the deadline by even one day almost always means your claim is permanently barred, no matter how strong the evidence or how severe the injury.

This page explains exactly which statute controls, how to determine which deadline applies to your specific accident date, and how the calculations work in practice, with concrete examples.

What HB 837 Changed and When It Took Effect

Before HB 837, Florida's general negligence statute of limitations was four years under the former Fla. Stat. § 95.11(3)(a). HB 837 moved negligence actions into subsection (4) of the statute and shortened the period to two years. The controlling provision is now Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(a), which requires that "an action founded on negligence" be commenced within two years.

Critically, HB 837 is not retroactive. Section 30 of the bill provides that the shortened limitations period applies only to causes of action accruing after the effective date of March 24, 2023. A negligence cause of action generally accrues on the date the injury occurs. This creates two categories of cases:

• Injury occurred on or before March 24, 2023: the old four-year deadline applies.
• Injury occurred after March 24, 2023: the new two-year deadline under § 95.11(4)(a) applies.

HB 837 made other changes that affect the value of a claim — most notably replacing pure comparative negligence with a modified comparative negligence system under Fla. Stat. § 768.81, which bars recovery entirely if a plaintiff is found more than 50 percent at fault. But for deadline purposes, the two-year rule is the change that ends cases before they begin.

How the Two-Year Deadline Is Calculated

The limitations period runs from the date the cause of action accrues — for most Miami injury cases, the date of the accident itself. A lawsuit is "commenced" for limitations purposes when the complaint is filed with the clerk of court, not when the defendant is served. The deadline falls on the second anniversary of the accident date. If that anniversary falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day under Florida's time-computation rules.

Worked Example 1: Post-HB 837 Car Accident

A driver is rear-ended at the intersection of SW 8th Street and SW 27th Avenue on June 10, 2024. The cause of action accrued after March 24, 2023, so § 95.11(4)(a) applies. The complaint must be filed with the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts no later than June 10, 2026. Filing on June 11, 2026 is too late.

Worked Example 2: Pre-HB 837 Accident Still Under the Old Rule

A pedestrian was struck in a crosswalk in Coconut Grove on February 1, 2023 — before HB 837's effective date. The old four-year statute governs, so the filing deadline is February 1, 2027. The same accident occurring six weeks later, on April 1, 2023, would have carried a deadline of April 1, 2025. Two nearly identical injuries, two years' difference in the filing window — the accrual date controls everything.

Worked Example 3: Premises Liability at a Venue

A concertgoer slips on an unmarked wet floor at a Miami arena on December 15, 2023, fracturing a hip. This is a negligence-based premises liability claim governed by § 95.11(4)(a), so suit must be filed by December 15, 2025. Venue cases like this often involve additional early deadlines in practice — surveillance video is routinely overwritten within 30 to 90 days, so a preservation letter must go out almost immediately. Our Miami concert venue injury practice handles exactly this evidence-preservation work.

Deadlines That Differ From the General Two-Year Rule

Not every injury claim follows § 95.11(4)(a). Several categories carry their own statutes and procedures:

Medical Malpractice Has Its Own Clock — and a Mandatory Presuit Process

Medical negligence claims run two years from the incident or from when the injury was or should have been discovered with due diligence, but no more than four years from the incident under the statute of repose (with narrow exceptions for fraud and for young children). Before filing, Fla. Stat. § 766.106 requires a presuit investigation and a notice of intent to initiate litigation, which triggers a 90-day tolling period. These stacked procedural steps mean a medical claim needs to be in a lawyer's hands many months before the raw deadline. The same layered-deadline caution applies to claims against drug manufacturers, which our pharmaceutical injury team evaluates alongside the medical providers involved.

Wrongful Death: The Clock Runs From the Date of Death

Under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(e), a wrongful death action must be filed within two years of the death, not the underlying accident. If a Miami crash victim is injured on January 5, 2024 and passes away from those injuries on March 20, 2024, the wrongful death deadline is March 20, 2026.

Claims Against Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami, or Other Government Entities

Many Miami injuries involve government defendants: a Miami-Dade Transit bus collision, a fall on a negligently maintained county sidewalk, an incident at a public school or park. Florida's limited waiver of sovereign immunity, Fla. Stat. § 768.28, imposes strict presuit requirements:

1. Written notice of the claim must be presented to the appropriate agency — and, for most claims, also to the Florida Department of Financial Services — within three years of accrual (two years for wrongful death), per § 768.28(6)(a).
2. No lawsuit may be filed until the agency denies the claim or 180 days pass, per § 768.28(6)(d).
3. Damages are capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident under § 768.28(5), absent a legislative claims bill.

Worked example: A cyclist is struck by a county vehicle in Little Havana on May 1, 2024. Statutory notice must be served by May 1, 2027, but the underlying negligence claim still carries the two-year limitations period — so as a practical matter, notice should be served well within the first year, allowing the 180-day waiting period to run and the complaint to be filed before May 1, 2026. Treating the notice deadline and the filing deadline as separate, independent traps is essential.

Limited Exceptions That May Pause the Clock

Florida strictly limits tolling. Fla. Stat. § 95.051 lists the only circumstances that pause a limitations period, including the defendant's absence from the state, use of a false name that prevents service, adjudicated incapacity of the plaintiff existing before accrual (capped at seven years), and the pendency of certain proceedings such as medical malpractice presuit or arbitration. Section 95.051(2) expressly forbids courts from recognizing any tolling ground not listed in the statute. Minors' claims receive protection only in narrow circumstances, and special rules under § 95.11(4)(c) preserve certain medical claims brought on behalf of a child before the child's eighth birthday. The safest assumption for any Miami injury victim is that no exception applies until a lawyer confirms otherwise.

Why Two Years Is Shorter Than It Sounds

Two years feels generous. In practice, it is not, because the litigation deadline sits at the end of a chain of much earlier practical deadlines:

• 14 days to obtain initial medical care after a car accident to preserve PIP benefits under § 627.736(1)(a);
• Days to weeks before surveillance footage, vehicle event data, and skid mark evidence disappear;
• Weeks to months to identify all defendants — a task that can involve corporate ownership records for a property, maintenance contractors, or product manufacturers, as in defective airbag cases where the manufacturer must be pinpointed and sued within the same two-year window;
• Months to complete medical treatment sufficient to value the claim and negotiate before filing becomes necessary.

Insurance negotiations do not pause the statute of limitations. Adjusters know the deadline, and a common pattern is slow-walking negotiations until the two-year mark passes, at which point the claim's settlement value drops to zero. The only way to stop the clock is to file the lawsuit. That is one reason our personal injury practice calendars every statutory deadline the day a client signs, and files suit whenever a fair settlement is not on the table in time.

What Happens If the Deadline Is Missed

The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense, and defendants raise it reliably. A complaint filed even one day late will almost certainly be dismissed with prejudice, ending the claim permanently regardless of fault or damages. Because the consequences are absolute, close-call situations — an unclear accrual date, a late-diagnosed injury, a potential tolling ground — deserve immediate legal review rather than guesswork. Consultations cost nothing, and under our no-win, no-fee arrangement, there is no financial barrier to getting a definitive answer on your deadline today.

You can contact us by phone at 786-522-1411 or by email at [email protected].