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What Car Insurance Does Florida Actually Require?
Two coverages: $10,000 of personal injury protection and $10,000 of property damage liability.
That is the entire legal minimum to register a car in Florida.
Notice what is missing: Florida does not require bodily injury liability coverage, the insurance that pays for the people a driver hurts.
Almost every other state requires it. Florida is the outlier, and injured people pay for the difference.
The driver who put you in a hospital may carry nothing that compensates you for it.
Here is what the law requires, what it strangely does not, and the coverage decision that protects your family either way.
At-a-Glance: Florida's Minimums
- Required: $10,000 PIP + $10,000 property damage liability (PDL)
- NOT required: bodily injury (BI) liability, the coverage that pays crash victims
- Roughly one in five Florida drivers is uninsured by industry estimates, among the worst rates in the nation
- UM/UIM coverage must be offered with BI and rejected in writing; it is the coverage that saves serious claims
- After a DUI or certain crashes, Florida forces liability coverage through FR-44 and SR-22 filings
Florida's Required Coverage, in One Table
| Coverage | Required? | Minimum | What It Pays For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Injury Protection (PIP) | Yes | $10,000 | Your own medical bills and lost wages, regardless of fault |
| Property Damage Liability (PDL) | Yes | $10,000 | Damage you cause to other people's vehicles and property |
| Bodily Injury Liability (BI) | No (with exceptions) | None | Injuries and deaths the driver causes to others |
| Uninsured Motorist (UM/UIM) | No (must be offered with BI) | None | Your injuries when the at-fault driver has little or no coverage |
| Medical Payments (MedPay) | No | None | The 20% of medical bills PIP leaves unpaid |
The PIP requirement comes from the no-fault law, and the PDL requirement from Florida's financial responsibility statute.[1] How the PIP side works day to day is covered on our pages about Florida's no-fault system and what PIP covers.
The Bodily Injury Gap, and What It Costs Crash Victims
In 48 states, a legally insured driver carries coverage for the people they might hurt. Florida asks for $10,000 toward your bumper and nothing toward your body.
The practical consequences show up in our cases every week:
- A "fully insured" driver can owe you nothing through insurance. A driver carrying exactly what Florida requires has zero coverage for your surgery, your lost months of work, or your permanent injury.
- Uninsured driving compounds it. Industry estimates have put roughly one in five Florida drivers on the road with no insurance at all, among the highest rates in the country. The minimum is thin, and a large share of drivers do not even carry that.
- Serious injuries outrun small policies instantly. Even when a driver bought BI voluntarily, a $25,000 or $50,000 policy disappears into a single hospital admission. The at-fault driver personally owing the rest is rarely worth much; judgments against uninsured defendants mostly go unpaid.
None of this means a serious Florida injury claim is hopeless. It means the recovery usually depends on coverage most people forgot they bought, or never knew they declined.
UM Coverage: The Line on Your Policy That Decides Serious Cases
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage steps in as your own bodily injury protection when the at-fault driver has nothing or too little. In a state that does not require BI, UM is not an extra. It is the difference between a compensated injury and an absorbed one.
Florida law treats UM with unusual care: insurers must offer it whenever a policy includes bodily injury liability, and a customer can decline it only with a written rejection.[2] Families are regularly surprised to learn a rejection form was signed years ago at a kitchen table, and equally surprised to learn their policy stacks.
Stacking matters in Florida. Stacked UM multiplies coverage across the vehicles on a policy: $100,000 in stacked UM with three insured cars can mean $300,000 available for one crash. Whether your policy stacks is a question worth answering before you ever need it, and the first question we answer when you do. Our page on being hit by an uninsured driver in Florida walks through how these claims actually get paid.
When Florida Does Force a Driver to Carry Liability Coverage
The no-BI rule has exceptions, all of them earned the hard way.
Under the Financial Responsibility Law, a driver who causes a crash involving injuries, or who racks up certain violations, can be required to prove bodily injury coverage of $10,000 per person and $20,000 per accident going forward, with an SR-22 filing to prove it. A DUI conviction triggers the FR-44 requirement: liability coverage of $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident, and $50,000 in property damage, maintained for three years.
The pattern is worth noticing. Florida requires meaningful liability coverage only after a driver has already hurt someone. For the person hurt in that first crash, the requirement arrives exactly one collision too late, which brings the answer back to UM.
What Sensible Coverage Looks Like in a No-BI State
We litigate the aftermath of thin policies for a living, so take this as field experience rather than sales advice. In Florida, the coverage that protects your own family is the coverage you buy for yourself: bodily injury liability well above any minimum, UM matching your BI limits, stacked if you insure multiple vehicles, and MedPay if the 20 percent PIP gap would strain your budget.
The premium difference between bare-minimum and genuinely protective coverage is usually modest. The difference after a serious crash is the entire case.
Florida Car Insurance Requirements FAQ
- What insurance is required to drive in Florida?
-
To register a vehicle, Florida requires $10,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) and $10,000 in property damage liability (PDL). PIP pays your own medical bills regardless of fault; PDL pays for damage you cause to others' property. Bodily injury liability, the coverage that pays people a driver injures, is not required for ordinary drivers.
- Is bodily injury coverage really optional in Florida?
-
For most drivers, yes. Florida is nearly alone among states in not requiring BI coverage as a condition of registration. The Financial Responsibility Law imposes BI requirements only after certain crashes or violations, and a DUI conviction triggers the FR-44 requirement of 100/300/50 coverage. Until then, a driver is legal with no coverage at all for the people they might hurt.
- What happens if the driver who hit me has no bodily injury insurance?
-
Your recovery usually comes from your own uninsured motorist coverage, if you have it, stacked across vehicles where the policy allows. Beyond UM, we look for other liable parties and policies: an employer if the driver was working, a vehicle owner separate from the driver, umbrella coverage, and dram shop liability in drunk driving cases. Suing an uninsured driver personally rarely produces real money.
- Do I need uninsured motorist coverage in Florida?
-
It is the most important optional coverage a Florida driver can buy. With no BI requirement and one of the nation's highest uninsured-driver rates, the odds that an at-fault driver carries too little coverage are high. Florida requires insurers to offer UM with any BI policy and to obtain a written rejection if you decline. Stacked UM multiplies protection across your insured vehicles.
- Are Florida's insurance minimums changing?
-
Proposals to replace PIP with mandatory bodily injury coverage, commonly 25/50, have been filed in Tallahassee for years, including bills that died in committee during the 2026 session. Until one becomes law, the requirements remain $10,000 PIP and $10,000 PDL. Any coverage decision should be based on the law as it stands, not the reform that might arrive.
Hit by a Driver With Minimum Coverage? There Is Usually More.
Florida's minimums were not written to make injured people whole, and they don't.
Crash victims deserve a full search of every policy that might respond, honest answers about what the coverage picture supports, and a team that has run this hunt thousands of times. The attorneys at Lawsuit Legal trace UM, employer, umbrella, and owner policies the first offer never mentions.
We help injured drivers and passengers, families after fatal wrecks, and people struck by uninsured motorists across Florida, with the legal help they need to find the coverage that pays. Call (888) 713-6653 for a free case evaluation.
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