Car accident lawyer in Miami and South Florida

After a crash in Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach

The steps after a crash do not change with the zip code: get medical care, report the crash, document the scene, and be careful with insurers. What changes in South Florida is how many other drivers, policies and languages may be involved.

Our Miami office, at 1111 Brickell Ave, 10th Floor, Miami, FL 33131, meets clients by appointment in English or Spanish. The first consultation is free and confidential. For the general rules, see our statewide car accident page.

Short answer: your own PIP insurance pays first, up to $10,000, if you get treatment within 14 days. A claim against the other driver for pain and suffering requires an injury that meets a legal threshold. Collect evidence on day one, and do not guess about fault with any insurer.

What the numbers say about South Florida roads

The federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System lists 3,730 fatal crashes across Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties from 2019–2023. About 59% happened in the dark and 35% on a Saturday or Sunday. These are crashes where someone died, so they are only part of the picture.

The "In the dark" column counts fatal crashes in dark conditions in each county. If your own crash was at night, lighting, signal visibility and headlights may matter to how fault is argued.

The roads that come up most

FARS names US 1, SR 9, I-95 and US 27 most often in Miami-Dade County; I-95, US 1, US 441 and I-75 in Broward County and I-95, SR 809, US 1 and US 441 in Palm Beach County. I-95 appears on both the Broward and Palm Beach lists, which makes it a through route for many of the region's crashes. In Monroe County, FARS lists US 1, US 1 Overseas Hwy and CR 905A, which reflects how much traffic funnels onto a single highway through the Keys.

When we look at a crash location, we ask who has cameras nearby, how the signals are timed, and whether the road's design contributed.

Insurance puzzles that are common here

• Rental cars and visitors. The other driver may be a visitor in a rental car, with insurance that comes from several places.
• Rideshare and delivery drivers. Coverage can depend on whether the app was on and whether a passenger was in the car.
• Uninsured drivers. Florida's required coverages center on PIP and $10,000 in property damage liability (Fla. Stat. § 324.022) and do not require most drivers to carry bodily injury liability. If the driver at fault has nothing for your injuries, your own uninsured motorist coverage may matter most. Look at your declarations page.

PIP in plain terms

PIP pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost income, up to $10,000, as long as you get initial treatment within 14 days (Fla. Stat. § 627.736). The full $10,000 for medical care is available only if a qualifying provider finds an emergency medical condition; otherwise medical benefits are capped at $2,500. Our PIP guide explains each piece.

The threshold for pain and suffering

To recover pain and suffering from the at-fault driver, your injury must consist in whole or in part of one of these: significant and permanent loss of an important bodily function; permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability other than scarring; significant and permanent scarring or disfigurement; or death (Fla. Stat. § 627.737). Doctors' opinions on permanence are central.

Hospitals

The state's list of designated trauma centers (updated July 23, 2026) includes these in our South Florida counties:

Keep every record from the first visit forward.

Courts

Miami-Dade County cases go to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit; Broward cases to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit; Palm Beach cases to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit; Monroe cases to the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. County courts hear claims up to $50,000 and circuit courts hear larger ones.

Communities nearest our Miami office

The larger communities for which Miami is the nearest of our three offices are below, with straight-line distances to our office.

What to do in the next 48 hours

1. Get examined, and describe every symptom.
2. Save photos, videos, the police report number and the other driver's details.
3. Notify your insurer and keep a copy of what you send.
4. Do not give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer without advice.
5. Keep every bill, letter and pay record in one folder.
6. If the other driver speaks mostly Spanish or English and what was said at the scene matters, write down what you remember them saying.

Time limits

Two years is the general limit for a negligence suit arising from an incident after March 24, 2023, as set by Fla. Stat. § 95.11. Our deadline guide covers the earlier deadlines.

Fault disputes that come up often on South Florida roads

When two drivers tell different stories, the evidence usually decides who is believed. In dense traffic that can include dashboard video, signal-timing records, the position of the vehicles after impact, and the damage pattern on each car. A short sketch of the intersection, drawn the same day from memory, helps your lawyer ask the right questions of the right people.

If a rental car or a company vehicle was involved, ask the driver for the rental agreement or the employer's name, and write down the plate number.

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Related Miami pages: personal injury, motorcycle accidents and truck accidents.

General information, not legal advice. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship, and every case depends on its own facts. For qualifying personal injury matters the firm works on a contingency-fee basis, so attorney fees are not collected unless there is a recovery. Last updated: 2026-10-16.

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