Florida Statute of Limitations: Deadlines for Injury Claims

Most Florida Injury Claims Must Be Filed Within Two Years

Section 95.11, Florida Statutes, sets out the deadline for almost every civil claim in Florida. For injury claims the answer is usually two years, and since 2023 it is two years for far more claims than it used to be.

CS/CS/HB 837 (ch. 2023-15) shortened the negligence deadline from four years to two years. The change applies to causes of action accruing after 23 March 2023. The practical consequence is stark: an accident that occurred in, say, March 2022 may still be governed by a four-year clock, while one that occurred a month later is not. The date of the injury, not the date you first spoke to a lawyer, determines which rule applies to you.

The Deadlines, Category by Category

Here is how Section 95.11 divides the claims an injured person in Florida is most likely to bring.

Negligence: two years - Section 95.11(5)(a)

"An action founded on negligence" must be commenced within two years. This covers the ordinary case: car crashes, slip and fall, premises liability, and dog bites.

Wrongful death: two years - Section 95.11(5)(e)

"An action for wrongful death" must be commenced within two years, running from the date of death. This is not four years. The subsection was formerly numbered 95.11(4)(d) before a new subsection (4) on medical debt shifted the numbering.

Medical malpractice: two years, outer limit four - Section 95.11(5)(c)

A medical malpractice action must be commenced within two years from the time the incident occurred, or within two years from the time the incident was or should have been discovered with the exercise of due diligence. The catch is the outer limit: "in no event shall the action be commenced later than 4 years from the date of the incident or occurrence."

That discovery rule is narrower than it sounds. It does not toll while you are still being treated, and continuing to see the same doctor does not extend the clock. The statute also provides that the four-year limit does not bar an action brought on behalf of a minor on or before the child's eighth birthday, and that where fraud, concealment, or intentional misrepresentation prevented discovery, the period is extended two years from discovery, "but in no event to exceed 7 years from the date the incident."

Product liability: four years - Section 95.11(3)(d)

An action for injury founded on the "design, manufacture, distribution, or sale of personal property that is not permanently incorporated to an improvement to real property" must be commenced within four years. This is one of the genuine four-year categories, and it applies to defective products that are not fixtures.

Construction defects: four years, seven for latent defects - Section 95.11(3)(b)

An action founded on the "design, planning, or construction of an improvement to real property" runs from the date the authority having jurisdiction issues a certificate of occupancy or completion, or the date construction was abandoned. For a latent defect, the period runs from when the defect was or should have been discovered with due diligence, but "in any event" the action must be commenced within seven years of the certificate date.

Medical debt owed to a licensed facility: three years - Section 95.11(4)

This is the subsection inserted in 2023. An action to collect medical debt for services rendered by a facility licensed under chapter 395 must be commenced within three years, running from the date the facility referred the debt to a third party for collection. This is the renumbering that moved wrongful death from (4)(d) to (5)(e).

Intentional torts and specific claims: four years - Section 95.11(3)(n)

Subject to subsections (5), (6), and (8), an action for assault, battery, false arrest, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, or another intentional tort falls under the four-year provision.

Wrongful death for an intentional tort: no deadline - Section 95.11(11)

A wrongful death action under Section 768.21 against a natural person for an intentional tort resulting in death from acts described in Sections 782.04 or 782.07 "may be commenced at any time," and no arrest, formal charges, or conviction is required as a precondition for filing.

Laches Can Bar a Claim Before the Deadline Passes

Passing a statutory deadline is not the only way to lose a claim. Section 95.11(7) provides that laches bars an action "unless it is commenced within the time provided for legal actions concerning the same subject matter regardless of lack of knowledge by the person sought to be held liable," and regardless of whether that person "is injured or prejudiced by the delay."

In practical terms, a plaintiff who sits on a claim for years while the evidence degrades can be barred on laches grounds even though two years have not run. Waiting is not a neutral act.

What Tolling Can and Cannot Do

Tolling rules, which pause or extend a deadline, are narrower than most people assume. In Florida:

• Minority tolls the statute. A child injured before the age of 18 is generally allowed to file after reaching majority, but the deadline is 95.11(3)(b) in 2023. Where a child cannot be identified, the period may not begin until one is.
• Mental incapacity tolls in limited circumstances but is not a general answer to a missed deadline.
• Medical malpractice pre-suit notice tolls, but only during the screening period. Serving a notice of intent to sue under Section 766.101 triggers the pre-suit screening process and tolls the limitations period while it runs. It does not restart the clock when screening ends.
• Discovery of an injury does not restart a negligence claim. It matters in medical malpractice under Section 95.11(5)(c) and for latent construction defects under Section 95.11(3)(b). It does not extend the two-year negligence deadline.

Why Deadlines Are Missed

• Assuming the old four-year period. This is the most damaging error, because it produces a false sense of having years left when the real deadline is the earlier one.
• Waiting on medical records. In med-mal and birth injury cases, waiting for a complete file can consume the entire period.
• Believing a claim was preserved by contacting an insurer. Notification to an insurance company is not a filing and does not toll anything.
• Missing the pre-suit steps in medical malpractice. Filing without complying with chapter 766 can bar the claim independently of any deadline.
• For a minor, losing track of the special rule. Section 95.11(5)(c) allows a med-mal action for a minor to be brought on or before the child's eighth birthday, and Section 768.81(6)'s 50 percent bar does not apply to chapter 766 claims.

What To Do Immediately

1. Write down the date of the injury, and separately the date of death if there was one. Those two dates drive almost everything.
2. Identify whether the claim is negligence, wrongful death, medical malpractice, product liability, or construction. The deadlines are different and cannot be mixed.
3. Preserve evidence: vehicle data, photographs, medical records, and physical evidence.
4. Consult a Florida attorney before the earlier of the two-year date or the completion of treatment.

Sources

• Section 95.11, Florida Statutes - limitations other than for the recovery of real property, including subsections (3)(b), (3)(d), (4), (5)(a), (5)(c), (5)(e), (7), and (11).
• Sections 766.101 and 766.111, Florida Statutes - medical malpractice pre-suit requirements.
• Section 768.81(6), Florida Statutes - the greater-than-50-percent bar and its chapter 766 exception.
• CS/CS/HB 837, ch. 2023-15, Florida Laws - the 2023 changes shortening the negligence period to two years.

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The deadline in a specific case depends on its facts, and you should have it reviewed by a Florida attorney promptly.