What Car Insurance Is Required in Florida?

The Two Coverages Florida Requires

Under Florida's Financial Responsibility and no-fault laws, every vehicle with four or more wheels registered in the state must carry:

• $10,000 in Personal Injury Protection (PIP) — your own medical and wage-loss coverage after a crash, regardless of who was at fault (§627.736).
• $10,000 in Property Damage Liability (PDL) — pays for damage you cause to someone else's property, such as their vehicle (§324.022).

That's the entire legal minimum: $10,000 / $10,000. Because PIP pays your own bills no matter who caused the crash, Florida is a "no-fault" state — a system we explain in depth in Is Florida a No-Fault State?

What PIP Covers (§627.736)

PIP is the backbone of Florida's no-fault system. Your own policy pays first, regardless of fault, and covers:

• 80% of reasonable and necessary medical bills, up to the $10,000 limit.
• 60% of lost wages caused by the injury.
• A limited death benefit.

There's also a catch inside PIP: you only get the full $10,000 if a medical provider determines you have an "emergency medical condition." Without that finding, your PIP benefit can be capped at just $2,500.

What Property Damage Liability Covers

PDL pays for damage you cause to other people's property — most often their car, but also things like fences, mailboxes, or storefronts. It does not pay to repair your own vehicle; that requires separate collision coverage. And $10,000 disappears quickly — a single late-model SUV can cost far more than that to repair or replace, leaving you personally responsible for the difference.

The Big Gap: Florida Doesn't Require Bodily Injury Liability

Here's what surprises nearly everyone: Florida does not require drivers to carry Bodily Injury Liability (BI) insurance. BI is the coverage that pays for injuries you cause to other people — their medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering — when you're at fault in a serious crash.

Most states require it. Florida generally does not (outside of certain post-violation requirements). That means a large share of Florida drivers on the road carry no coverage for the harm they might cause to someone else. If one of them hits you and injures you seriously, there may be no BI policy to pursue at all — which is exactly why your own coverage choices matter so much.

Why the State Minimum Isn't Enough

The $10,000 / $10,000 minimum was set to let people register a car, not to actually make an injured person whole. Consider what happens in a real crash:

• Medical bills blow past $10,000 fast. A single ambulance ride, ER visit, and imaging can exhaust your PIP before any serious treatment begins. Injuries like a traumatic brain injury or a spinal injury can cost hundreds of thousands.
• PIP pays nothing for pain and suffering. To recover for that, you must step outside no-fault by meeting Florida's serious-injury threshold (§627.737) and pursue the at-fault driver — which only helps if that driver actually carries bodily-injury coverage.
• PDL won't fix your own car. Without collision coverage, your vehicle repairs come out of your pocket.
• The at-fault driver may be uninsured. With no BI requirement, "full coverage" on the other driver is far from guaranteed.

In other words, carrying only the legal minimum can leave you exposed both as the person causing a crash and as the person injured in one.

Coverage Worth Adding

While not legally required, these coverages are what actually protect a Florida driver financially after a serious crash:

• Bodily Injury Liability (BI). Protects your assets if you injure someone else and are sued for more than PIP covers.
• Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM). Arguably the most important optional coverage in Florida. It pays your injuries when the at-fault driver has no BI coverage or not enough — and in Florida it can sometimes be "stacked" across vehicles for higher limits.
• Collision and Comprehensive. Pays to repair or replace your own vehicle.
• Medical Payments (MedPay). Helps cover the medical costs PIP leaves behind.

Motorcycles and Other Exceptions

Florida's PIP requirement applies to vehicles with four or more wheels, so motorcycles are not covered by PIP — a rider hurt in a crash has no $10,000 no-fault benefit and relies instead on the at-fault driver's BI, their own UM/UIM, and health insurance. We cover this in detail on our Florida motorcycle accident page. Rideshare drivers and passengers also fall under special coverage rules; see our Uber and Lyft accident pages.

Driving Without Insurance in Florida

Driving without the required PIP and PDL coverage can lead to suspension of your driver license, license plate, and registration, plus reinstatement fees to get them back. After certain violations — such as a DUI — Florida requires much higher coverage, including bodily-injury limits, for years afterward. The bottom line: the legal minimum is the floor for staying registered, not a level of protection you should rely on.

Frequently Asked Questions