Florida’s Mass Tort Reform: What you Should Know
Governor DeSantis signed HB 837 on March 24, 2023, and within a week our intake calls changed. The same question, over and over: does this new law mean I no longer have a case? After a crash on I-75 near Alico Road or a rear-end on US-41 in Bonita Springs, the caller wants to know whether the rules shifted against them. The short answer is that the case still exists. The longer answer is that the rules around fault, deadlines, and what a jury sees on medical bills have all moved, in ways that make every step of the claim harder for the injured person. Three years of watching HB 837 shake out in Lee and Collier County courtrooms is what this post is about — the working version, in plain English, file by file.
What Florida law actually says about the 2023 reform
Governor DeSantis signed HB 837 on March 24, 2023. Three statutory changes do most of the work.
Modified comparative negligence — §768.81, Florida Statutes. Before 2023, Florida was a pure comparative-negligence state — a jury could find you ninety percent at fault for your own injuries and you would still recover ten percent of your damages. That is gone. Today, if a jury finds you fifty percent or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your share. If the jury finds you fifty-one percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. The fifty-percent line is the new wall. Medical-malpractice claims are carved out of this change and still run under the older pure-comparative rule, which is a useful detail most clients have not heard about.
Statute of limitations — §95.11(4)(a), Florida Statutes. The window to file a general negligence lawsuit dropped from four years to two years for causes of action accruing on or after March 24, 2023. Two years is a short runway for a serious-injury case. By the time a client has finished orthopedic treatment, reached maximum medical improvement, and gathered the records, eighteen months can be gone.
Medical-damages evidence. The bill changed what a jury is allowed to see for past medical damages. For an insured plaintiff, the evidence is generally limited to what the health insurer was obligated to pay plus any copay or deductible, not the gross billed amount before write-offs. For treatment under a letter of protection, the relationship between the lawyer and the treating provider is now admissible. Defense lawyers can ask about it. the answer is that this has tightened how our office treats LOP referrals — we want providers we would be comfortable explaining in front of a jury.
Bad-faith safe harbor. The reform also created a ninety-day window for liability carriers. If a carrier tenders the policy limits within ninety days of receiving notice of a claim plus the supporting documentation, that carrier cannot be sued for bad faith on that claim. The practical effect has been to push more clear-liability cases toward fast tender. Our office now front-loads the demand package — complete medical records, wage-loss documentation, photographs, and a clean liability theory — so that the ninety-day clock starts with everything the adjuster needs.
A note on premises cases. The reform also clarified that in negligent-security and premises-liability cases, juries may apportion fault to a non-party who committed an intentional crime on the property. That means a property owner’s share is measured against the criminal actor’s share, and a plaintiff has to prove that the owner’s failure to take reasonable security measures is a real percentage of the harm.
How the 2023 rules play out in real Lee and Collier County cases
The statute reads as a wall of text. What it looks like in real cases breaks down into a small number of recurring patterns.
- The shared-fault rear-end case. A client is rear-ended on US-41 but had brake-checked the car in front. Under the old pure-comparative rule, a jury could put thirty percent on our client and our client still recovered seventy. That math still works, because thirty is under fifty. The reform did not eliminate shared-fault recovery — it eliminated majority-fault recovery.
- The intersection-dispute case. Two cars enter an intersection on Tamiami Trail and both drivers blame each other. These are the cases where the fifty-percent line bites hardest. A jury that splits liability down the middle at fifty-fifty is, under §768.81, still permitting recovery. A jury that puts our client one tick over — fifty-one to forty-nine — is not. The case work is now heavily front-loaded into accident reconstruction.
- The serious-injury case with delayed treatment. A client tries to tough out a back injury for six months before scheduling the MRI. Under the new two-year clock, that delay can become a problem at the back end of the case. We tell clients in the first call: get treatment, document everything, and let our office manage the timeline.
- The clear-liability case with a ninety-day tender. A drunk driver runs a red light and the police report is unambiguous. The liability carrier tenders limits inside ninety days, and the bad-faith argument is taken off the table. The fight now moves to the underinsured-motorist carrier and §627.727 coverage stacking.
What the 2023 reform actually changed in how we build an injury case
What clients do not always see is how the reform stacked the early stages of the case. The fifty-percent bar means that a defense lawyer’s entire opening move is now built around getting the jury to put fifty-one percent on the plaintiff. Comparative-fault arguments that used to be a side discussion are now the main event. Our office spends real money earlier on reconstruction engineering, on scene photography, on dash-cam preservation, on cellphone-data subpoenas, because the difference between forty-nine and fifty-one in a juror’s notebook is the entire case.
The medical-damages change has also reshaped the way we work with treating doctors. A jury used to see the full billed amount. Today, on most files, the jury sees a number that is closer to what the insurance company actually paid. Future medical damages are still recoverable in full, so the workup of the life-care plan and the future-care witness — the rehab doctor, the orthopedist, the neuropsychologist — carries more weight than it used to. The whole center of gravity in a serious-injury case has moved from past bills to future care.
And then there is the two-year clock. In a soft-tissue case, two years is workable. In a traumatic-brain-injury case, where the client is still adjusting to a new normal eighteen months in, two years is brutal. We have had to file lawsuits earlier than I would have preferred, simply to preserve the claim, and then carry the litigation while the medical picture sharpened.
What to do if you have been injured under the new Florida rules
Through thirty years of injury cases across Lee and Collier Counties, the practical advice I give clients in the first phone call has not changed much. What has changed is the urgency.
- Get treatment within fourteen days. Florida’s PIP statute, §627.736, requires initial medical care within fourteen days of the crash for PIP benefits to apply. Miss that window and you lose the ten thousand dollars of no-fault medical coverage. I have seen this trip up clients who felt fine for three weeks and then woke up to a frozen neck.
- Pull the crash report. Under §316.066, the responding officer’s report becomes available within a short window. Get a copy. Read it. If it is wrong, our office can sometimes get it corrected before the carriers freeze around the original version.
- Photograph everything before the tow truck arrives. Scene photos, license plates, the position of the cars on the road, traffic signals, skid marks. I have had cases turn on a single cellphone photograph a client almost did not bother taking.
- Save the gear. If you were on a motorcycle, save the helmet, jacket, gloves, boots. If you were in a car, save the dash cam and any in-cabin camera. Do not let an insurer convince you to release the vehicle for salvage before our office has had a witness look at it.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the at-fault carrier. You are not required to. Tell them politely that your lawyer will follow up. Then call us.
- Call early. The two-year clock under §95.11(4)(a) is the single biggest behavioral change the reform forced on our practice. There is no reward for waiting.
A case the two-year clock almost swallowed
A Fort Myers client came to us after a rear-end collision that left him with a neck injury requiring ongoing physical therapy. He had been treating for months, focusing on recovery, and assumed he had more time than he did. He called our office at month twenty of the two-year window. We filed in time, recovered $150,000, and settled the claim — but the margin was uncomfortably thin. The 2023 reform does not pause the clock while you recover. Call a lawyer at month one, not month twenty.
Key Takeaways
- Florida’s 2023 reform under HB 837 replaced pure comparative negligence with a modified rule — fifty-one percent at fault and you recover nothing.
- The statute of limitations for general negligence dropped from four years to two years for causes of action accruing on or after March 24, 2023.
- What a jury sees for past medical damages is now closer to what the insurer actually paid, not the gross billed amount.
- Liability carriers that tender policy limits within ninety days of a documented claim are insulated from bad-faith exposure on that claim.
- Calling a lawyer early — month one, not month twenty-three — is no longer optional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Does Florida’s 2023 tort reform apply to my case if my crash happened before March 24, 2023?
Generally no on the substantive changes, but the procedural changes can reach back. The two-year statute of limitations under §95.11(4)(a) applies to causes of action accruing on or after March 24, 2023. If your crash was before that date, you still have the prior four-year window for most negligence claims. The savings clause has been the subject of more litigation than anything else in the bill, so a short call to our office to confirm dates is worth your time.
Q2. What is the modified comparative negligence rule, in plain English?
Under §768.81, if a jury finds you fifty percent or less at fault for your own injuries, your recovery is reduced by your share of fault. If the jury finds you fifty-one percent or more at fault, you recover nothing. Before 2023, Florida was a pure comparative state — a plaintiff who was ninety percent at fault could still recover ten percent. That window is closed for crashes after March 24, 2023. Medical-malpractice claims are an exception and still run under the older rule.
Q3. How does the new law change what medical bills a jury sees?
The 2023 bill restricts the evidence of medical damages to amounts actually paid or owed, not the gross billed charge before write-offs. For an insured plaintiff, the recoverable past medical damages are tied to what the health insurer was obligated to pay plus copays. Letter-of-protection treatment is still permitted, but the relationship between the lawyer and the treating provider is discoverable and admissible. The practical effect is a tighter medical-damages picture in front of the jury.
Q4. What is the bad-faith safe harbor and why does it matter?
The reform created a ninety-day safe-harbor window. If the at-fault driver’s liability carrier tenders the policy limits within ninety days of receiving notice of the claim with the supporting documentation, the carrier cannot be sued for bad faith on that claim. That gives carriers a strong reason to pay early on clear-liability cases, and it gives our office a strong reason to send a complete, well-documented demand package on day one.
Q5. Should I file my case faster because of the two-year deadline?
Yes, and we say so plainly in every intake call. Two years sounds like a long time when you are recovering from a crash on I-75. It is not. Medical treatment, MRI follow-ups, surgical consults, and recovery to maximum medical improvement can eat eighteen months on a serious-injury file. Calling a lawyer at month twenty-three to file a lawsuit is a hard way to live. Call us at month one.
Talk to our office before the two-year clock runs
If you or someone in your family has been hurt in Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Naples, Estero, Cape Coral, or Lehigh Acres, I would be glad to hear what happened and tell you, plainly, how the 2023 reform affects your case. Our office answers the phone, and the first consultation is free. There is no fee unless we recover for you.
Call 239-992-8259 or visit our contact page. Main office: Windsor Place, 3525 Bonita Beach Rd, Suite 107, Bonita Springs, FL 34134. Satellite office in Fort Myers.
About the Author
David B. Pittman, Esq. founded Pittman Law Firm, P.L. and has practiced personal injury law across Southwest Florida since. The firm represents injured clients across Lee and Collier Counties — from the main office at Windsor Place on Bonita Beach Road through Fort Myers, Naples, Estero, Cape Coral, and Lehigh Acres — with a particular focus on commercial-vehicle, complex-liability, and serious-injury cases.
David studied undergraduate at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, then law at the University of South Carolina School of Law. Martindale-Hubbell rates him AV-Preeminent, and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum lists him as a member.
David has held a Florida real estate broker license for twenty-five years, a credential that shapes how the firm reads the property side of premises cases. The firm handles personal injury cases across Lee and Collier Counties, serving Fort Myers, Bonita Springs, Naples, Cape Coral, Estero, and Lehigh Acres, with offices at Windsor Place in Bonita Springs (main) and Fort Myers (satellite). Call 239-992-8259 for a free consultation.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Pittman Law Firm, P.L. Every case turns on its own facts. For advice on your situation, please contact our office directly.