Understanding Florida Personal Injury Laws: How They Affect Your Case in Tallahassee

If you have a personal injury claim in Tallahassee, your case will be governed by Florida law. While Florida’s personal injury laws provide you with clear legal rights, they also present various challenges for recovering the financial compensation you deserve. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help; and, if you think you may have a claim, we strongly encourage you to speak with a lawyer as soon as possible. You can lose your legal rights if you aren’t careful—and hiring a lawyer right away will help ensure that this doesn’t happen.

Here is an overview of Florida’s personal injury laws and how they affect your case in Tallahassee:

The Law of Negligence

The vast majority of personal injury cases in Tallahassee are governed by the law of negligence. This means that in order to prove your right to just compensation, you need evidence that someone else’s (or a company’s) negligence is responsible for your injuries.

Negligence can take many forms. In car accident cases, for example, aggressive driving, distracted driving, drunk driving, speeding, and running red lights and stop signs are all common forms of negligence. In slip, trip and fall cases, forms of negligence such as failing to clean up a spill, failing to repair a broken sidewalk or failing to properly maintain an escalator can provide you with clear legal rights. The key is to determine the specific form of negligence involved in your case, and this means hiring an experienced personal injury lawyer to investigate your accident as soon as possible.

The Law of Strict Liability

While most personal injury cases are governed by the law of negligence, some cases are governed by the law of strict liability instead. When Florida’s strict liability law applies, proof of negligence is not required.

Cases involving product defects are governed by strict liability in Florida. So are many cases involving dog bites. But, even though proof of negligence isn’t required in these cases, recovering the financial compensation you deserve still is not easy. Not only do you need to be able to prove that Florida’s strict liability law applies, but you also need to be able to prove how much you deserve to recover for your injury-related losses.  

Florida’s Personal Injury Statute of Limitations

When you have a personal injury claim in Tallahassee, you only have a limited amount of time to seek the financial compensation you deserve. This is due to Florida’s personal injury statute of limitations.

A statute of limitations is a law that places a time limit on your right to file a lawsuit. Once the statute of limitations for your lawsuit expires, your time is up. Even if you miss the deadline by a single day, you won’t be able to recover any financial compensation for your injuries.

In most cases, Florida’s personal injury statute of limitations expires two years after an accident occurs. However, while you may have up to two years to file a personal injury claim in Tallahassee, you do not want to wait any longer than necessary. If you wait to hire a lawyer, your lawyer may not be able to collect the evidence he or she needs to prove your legal rights.

Florida’s Comparative Negligence Law

Another law that has a major impact on some personal injury cases in Tallahassee is Florida’s comparative negligence law. This law limits accident victims’ ability to recover just compensation when they are partially responsible for their own injuries.

Until 2023, Florida had a “pure” comparative negligence law. Under this law, you could recover financial compensation regardless of your percentage of fault in an accident (though your damages would be reduced in proportion to your percentage of fault). However, Florida adopted a “modified” comparative negligence law in 2024. Under Florida’s new law, you can recover partial compensation if you are 50 percent or less at fault for your injuries. But, if you are more than 50 percent at fault, you are not entitled to any financial compensation.

Florida’s Insurance Bad Faith Law

Filing a personal injury claim in Tallahassee usually means dealing with the at-fault party’s insurance company. Under Florida law, the insurance companies have an obligation to handle all personal injury claims in good faith. If an insurance company uses bad-faith tactics to try to delay or deny a personal injury claim (i.e., by refusing to investigate or misrepresenting the facts), this can entitle the victim to additional compensation in some cases.

Compensatory Damages in Florida Personal Injury Cases

With the exception of minor car accidents (which are governed by Florida’s “no fault” auto insurance law), victims of most types of accidents in Tallahassee can seek just compensation for all of their accident-related losses. These are referred to as “compensatory damages.”

Compensatory damages cover the losses you sustain as the result of an accident. This includes losses you sustain in the immediate aftermath of the accident, losses you incur during your recovery and losses you will incur in the future. In a typical personal injury case, these will include:

• Medical expenses
• Other out-of-pocket costs
• Lost income and benefits
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of companionship, consortium and enjoyment of life

Punitive Damages in Florida Personal Injury Cases

Under Florida law, punitive damages are only available to accident victims in limited circumstances. Generally, to recover punitive damages, you must be able to show that the at-fault party either: (i) acted with “gross negligence;” or, (ii) engaged in intentional misconduct. When punitive damages are available, they are typically capped at either $500,000 or three times the victim’s compensatory damages, whichever is greater.

Discuss Your Case with a Personal Injury Lawyer in Tallahassee for Free

Do you need to know more about your legal rights after an accident in Tallahassee? If so, we strongly encourage you to contact us right away. To discuss your case with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Tallahassee as soon as possible, give us a call at 800-780-8607 or request a free consultation online today.