When can I sue outside of no-fault?
Two different questions get combined here.
For pain and suffering, you must meet the threshold: permanent injury, significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death.
For economic damages — medical bills beyond what PIP paid, the 20 percent PIP didn't cover, wage loss beyond the 60 percent and beyond the limit, and future medical costs — the analysis is different, and these are recoverable without the same threshold showing.
What you're suing for practically. The at-fault driver's bodily injury liability coverage, if they carry it. Florida doesn't require it in most circumstances, which is why so many claims end up against the claimant's own uninsured motorist coverage instead.
The deadline changed. Following 2023 tort reform, the general negligence limitations period is two years rather than four, for causes accruing after March 24, 2023.
That compression matters. Two years passes while treatment is still ongoing in serious cases.
Two years now, not four. That deadline arrives sooner than treatment ends. ---
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