Florida truck accident law

Florida’s highway safety department counted 46,677 crashes involving commercial motor vehicles in 2024, with 304 deaths and 12,282 injuries (opens in a new tab). Its count is a wide one. It takes in buses and any vehicle rated at 10,001 pounds or more, as well as tractor-trailers.

Federal figures look only at large trucks. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counted 353 people killed in Florida crashes involving large trucks in 2024, 42 of them in the truck (opens in a new tab). The other 311 were in another vehicle or were not in a vehicle at all.

These figures say who was hurt. They do not say who was at fault, which is what the rest of this page is about.

Florida gives a claim founded on negligence two years (opens in a new tab). The period runs from the time the cause of action accrues (opens in a new tab), a date an attorney works out from the facts.

That is shorter than it used to be. The legislature cut the period from four years to two in 2023, and the change applies to causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023 (opens in a new tab).

A wrongful death action must also be brought within two years (opens in a new tab).

A child does not get extra time simply for being a child. Florida stops the clock for a minor only while no parent or guardian is able to bring the claim (opens in a new tab), and never beyond seven years from the event.

Claims against the State, a county or a city follow a schedule of their own, set out further down this page. And some of the carrier’s records are only required to be kept for six months (opens in a new tab), far less than any of these periods, which is the reason to speak with a lawyer early.

Florida reduces your damages by your own share of the fault. Since 2023, a person found greater than 50 percent at fault for his or her own harm (opens in a new tab) recovers nothing.

Fault is divided among the defendants as well. A Florida court enters judgment against each liable party on the basis of that party’s percentage of fault (opens in a new tab), and no longer makes every negligent defendant answerable for the whole.

A defendant may also ask that part of the fault be assigned to someone who was never sued, if it pleads and proves that person’s fault (opens in a new tab). That is one reason it matters to identify every company that had a part in the crash: the driver, the trucking company, the owner of the truck or trailer, a shipper or a broker.

Not wearing a seat belt can count against you as well. Florida allows a seat belt violation to be considered as evidence of comparative negligence (opens in a new tab).

Florida is a no-fault state. Your own auto policy’s personal injury protection pays first, whoever caused the crash, up to $10,000 in medical and disability benefits (opens in a new tab). Medical benefits reach that figure only if a physician or another listed provider has determined that you had an emergency medical condition, and are limited to $2,500 (opens in a new tab) if a provider determines that you did not.

It does not pay everything. Within that limit it covers 80 percent of reasonable medical expenses and 60 percent of lost income (opens in a new tab).

One condition catches people out. The medical benefits are available only if you receive initial care within 14 days after the crash (opens in a new tab). That is a rule about your own insurance. It is not a deadline for a claim against the trucking company.

The same law limits when damages for pain and suffering are available. Where it applies, they require an injury that includes a significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death (opens in a new tab).

Whether that limit applies in a truck case depends on the truck. The statute turns on whether the vehicle that hit you carried the no-fault coverage Florida requires (opens in a new tab), which is a question about that truck and its insurance. It has to be answered case by case.

Trucks in interstate commerce are subject in Florida to the federal motor carrier safety regulations (opens in a new tab), which cover the driver’s qualifications, hours of service, inspection and maintenance.

Under the federal rules a freight driver may drive a total of 11 hours (opens in a new tab) inside a 14-hour window that opens after 10 consecutive hours off duty.

Trucks engaged only in commerce within Florida are held to the same federal rules as they stood on December 31, 2023 (opens in a new tab), with exceptions written into the statute. A driver working solely in that in-state commerce, and not hauling placarded hazardous materials, may drive 12 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, and not past the 16th hour after coming on duty (opens in a new tab).

In-state commerce is narrower than it sounds. Under the federal definition, a haul between two places in Florida is still interstate commerce when it is part of a shipment that began or will end outside the state (opens in a new tab). A container that reached a Florida port from overseas can be interstate freight on a truck that never leaves Florida.

The exceptions go further for smaller trucks. A commercial vehicle under 26,001 pounds, in in-state commerce and carrying no placarded hazardous materials, is exempt from most of the federal rules Florida adopts (opens in a new tab). It must still comply with the federal driving rules, the equipment rules and the duty to keep its parts in safe condition, and Florida’s own daily and weekly driving limits still apply to its driver.

Which set of rules governed the truck that hit you depends on its weight, its cargo, and where the freight began and was bound. Hazardous cargo is the constant: a truck carrying it is under the federal hazardous materials regulations (opens in a new tab) whether or not it ever leaves the state.

Not every Florida truck has a logbook. In in-state commerce, a driver does not have to keep the federal record of duty status (opens in a new tab) when three things are true: the driver stays within 150 air miles of base, the truck is not hauling hazardous materials in amounts that require placards, and the carrier keeps time records instead.

For the trucks the federal rules do cover, much of the proof sits in the carrier’s own files, and those rules set how long each one has to be kept. Some of the periods are short. They include:

• Driver logs and their supporting documents, for not less than 6 months (opens in a new tab) from the date the carrier receives them.
• A back-up copy of the electronic logging device records, for 6 months (opens in a new tab).
• Driver vehicle inspection reports, for three months (opens in a new tab) from the date each report was prepared.
• Inspection, repair and maintenance records, for 1 year, and for 6 months after the vehicle leaves the carrier’s control (opens in a new tab).
• The driver’s qualification file, for as long as the driver is employed and three years after (opens in a new tab).
• The carrier’s accident register, for 3 years after the date of each accident (opens in a new tab).

Florida deals with lost evidence inside the injury case itself. The Florida Supreme Court has held that there is no separate lawsuit against the defendant for destroying evidence (opens in a new tab). The remedies are sanctions from the court and, in some circumstances, a presumption against the party that lost the evidence.

For electronic records, Florida’s court rules reach back before a suit is filed. They apply to electronically stored information that should have been preserved in the anticipation or conduct of litigation (opens in a new tab) and was lost because a party did not take reasonable steps to keep it. The strongest measures under that rule require a finding that the party meant to deprive the other side of the information.

This is why we send the carrier a written request early in a case, asking it to keep the logs, the inspection and maintenance files and any video. A request does not ensure that every record survives. It does tell the company, in writing and with a date on it, what the case will need.

It depends on where the truck travels and what it carries. A for-hire carrier hauling ordinary freight across state lines in a truck rated at 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage (opens in a new tab). Carriers of oil and of many hazardous materials must carry $1,000,000 or $5,000,000 (opens in a new tab), depending on the material and the trip.

Florida’s own floor, for heavy trucks the federal rule does not reach, is much lower: $50,000, $100,000 or $300,000 per occurrence (opens in a new tab), depending on the truck’s weight. A truck that falls under the federal rule must carry the federal amount instead.

The minimum is only the starting point. The carrier, the owner of the trailer and a shipper or broker may each hold separate coverage, and finding every policy is part of the work.

Start with the name on the door. Federal rules require a commercial truck in interstate commerce to display the name of the motor carrier operating it and its USDOT number (opens in a new tab) on both sides. That marking tells you which carrier was operating the truck.

Florida adds a rule of its own, and it is an old one. Under the dangerous instrumentality doctrine, the owner of a motor vehicle who entrusts it to someone else is liable for that person’s negligent driving (opens in a new tab). The rule does not depend on the driver being the owner’s employee, and the Florida Supreme Court described it as the law of the state again in 2023 (opens in a new tab).

The legislature has capped that liability for some owners. The caps do not apply to an owner whose vehicles are used for commercial activity in the ordinary course of its business (opens in a new tab), other than a rental company.

Rental and leasing companies stand differently. Federal law provides that a company in the business of renting or leasing vehicles is not liable merely for being the owner (opens in a new tab), so long as it was not negligent itself, and the Florida Supreme Court has applied that rule to a rental company (opens in a new tab).

Many drivers own their trucks and lease them to a carrier. Federal rules say what that lease must provide: that the carrier has exclusive possession, control and use of the equipment (opens in a new tab) and assumes complete responsibility for its operation while the lease lasts.

A freight broker can be asked how it chose the carrier. In May 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court held that a claim that a broker was negligent in hiring a carrier is not blocked by federal law (opens in a new tab). The ruling does not make a broker liable; whether it used ordinary care is still decided under state law. And the Court did not decide the question for shipments that stay within one state.

Florida has one statute for all of them. It waives the government’s immunity from injury claims only to the extent the statute says (opens in a new tab), and it covers state agencies, counties and cities alike.

Before a lawsuit can be filed, the claim must be presented in writing to the agency and, unless it is against a city or a county, to the Department of Financial Services as well, within 3 years after it accrues (opens in a new tab). In a wrongful death case the period is 2 years.

The government then has 6 months to respond, or 90 days in a wrongful death case (opens in a new tab). If it does not, the claim is treated as denied and the suit can go ahead.

The amounts are limited. The State and its agencies and subdivisions cannot be made to pay more than $200,000 to one person or $300,000 for one incident (opens in a new tab) without a further act of the Legislature. A 2026 bill to raise those limits passed both chambers and was vetoed on June 30, 2026 (opens in a new tab).

The driver is usually not the defendant. A government employee acting within the scope of the job generally cannot be held personally liable (opens in a new tab); the claim is against the agency, and punitive damages are not available.

A wrongful death case is brought by the personal representative of the person who died (opens in a new tab), for the benefit of the survivors and the estate. Family members do not file in their own names.

Florida defines the survivors as the spouse, children and parents, and dependent blood relatives and adoptive brothers and sisters (opens in a new tab). A surviving spouse may claim for the loss of companionship and protection and for mental pain and suffering (opens in a new tab).

One Florida rule surprises families. When the injuries from the crash cause the death, the injured person’s own claim does not survive (opens in a new tab). The wrongful death action takes its place, and the losses that can be claimed are the ones the statute lists.

Every case turns on its own facts, and no lawyer can promise a result. What Florida law does set out is how a judgment is put together.

Medical bills are proven by what was paid. In a Florida injury case, evidence of past medical bills that have been satisfied is limited to the amount actually paid (opens in a new tab), whoever paid it.

Punitive damages cannot be claimed when a case is first filed. The claimant must first make a reasonable showing of a basis for them (opens in a new tab), and at trial must prove intentional misconduct or gross negligence by clear and convincing evidence. A company can be made to pay punitive damages for an employee’s conduct only where it took part, its managers condoned the conduct, or it was grossly negligent itself.

Florida also limits them. As a general rule they may not exceed three times the compensatory damages or $500,000, whichever is greater (opens in a new tab).

As a general rule, interest does not run on injury damages before judgment. The Florida Supreme Court has said that plaintiffs in personal injury cases have not been entitled to prejudgment interest (opens in a new tab).

Claims above $50,000 go to the circuit court. County courts hear cases up to that amount (opens in a new tab), and circuit courts hear the actions at law the county courts cannot (opens in a new tab).

A case is generally brought in the county where the defendant resides or where the cause of action accrued (opens in a new tab), which for a crash usually means the county where it happened. Other pages on this site name the court for a particular county.