Florida is a no-fault state. In practice that means your own policy responds to your own injuries first, whoever caused the crash, and the coverage that does it is Personal Injury Protection. It is on nearly every policy written here, and it is the coverage drivers understand least.
What it pays
A share of the medical bills that follow a crash, a share of the earnings lost while you cannot work, and a benefit if someone dies. It applies to you, and generally to relatives living in your household, and to passengers who have no policy of their own. It does not care who was at fault, which is the whole point of it.
There is a condition worth knowing before you need it: Florida expects you to be seen by a qualified provider within a set period after the crash, and treatment that starts later can fall outside the benefit. If you have been in a collision and feel fine, that is still a reason to be examined rather than a reason not to be.
Where it stops
PIP pays a share, not all, and it stops at a limit that a serious injury reaches quickly. It does nothing for the other driver’s injuries, and it does nothing for damage to your own car. Those are separate coverages, and one of them is where Florida’s requirements are unusual.
For most drivers here, the compulsory minimum does not include bodily injury liability, which is the coverage that pays for injuries you cause to someone else. A driver can be entirely legal and have nothing at all standing between an at-fault crash and their own savings. We quote it as a matter of course, and we show you what it costs, because the figure is almost always smaller than people expect.
The gap on the other side
Florida has one of the highest uninsured-driver rates in the country. If the driver who hit you has nothing, PIP will not make you whole and there is nobody to sue worth suing. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is the answer to that, and it is the coverage we most often add to a policy somebody brought us from elsewhere.
Bring your declarations page to any of our desks, including the two inside Naples dealerships, and we will read it with you and tell you what is missing.