Injured in a crash

How Long After a Car Accident Can You Claim an Injury?

The crash was last Tuesday. You told the officer you were fine and drove home. Now it is the weekend and you cannot turn your head to back out of the driveway. You are wondering whether it is too late to say anything, and whether anyone will believe you. Short answer: it is probably not too late, but the clock is running, and there is more than one clock.

Why injuries show up late

Adrenaline is a painkiller. At the scene you can walk around a wrecked car feeling almost normal. Then it wears off.

Neck and back strain, the most common crash injuries, often peak two or three days later. Concussion symptoms, like headaches, fog, and trouble sleeping, can take a week to become obvious. The injury was there from the start and you are only now feeling it. Insurance adjusters know this too. They still use the gap between the crash and your first doctor visit against you, because it works.

There are three clocks, not one

• The medical clock: how soon you need to see a doctor.
• The insurance clock: how soon you need to tell your own insurer.
• The lawsuit clock: how long you have to file a case in court.

Missing the first weakens your claim. Missing the second can void your coverage. Missing the third ends your claim.

The medical clock

Florida is a no-fault state, and your own policy's Personal Injury Protection, usually $10,000, pays your first medical bills no matter who caused the crash. To use it, you must get treatment within 14 days of the crash. Miss that window and the coverage is gone. And unless a doctor finds an "emergency medical condition," PIP medical benefits are capped at $2,500, so how your visit is documented matters.

Arizona has no 14-day rule. There is no PIP in Arizona, and medical payments coverage on your own policy is optional. But no deadline does not mean delay is free. Every day between the crash and your first visit is a day the other driver's insurer will say the injury came from somewhere else.

In both states the advice is the same: go now. Urgent care, the ER, your own doctor, or a chiropractor. Describe every symptom. Then keep your follow-up appointments.

The insurance clock

Your own policy requires you to report a crash promptly, and insurers read that as days, not weeks. In Florida, reporting is also how your PIP claim gets opened. Wait too long and your insurer can argue you broke the terms of the policy.

Give them the basics and stick to facts. The other driver's insurer is different. No clock requires you to talk to them, and you should not give them a recorded statement or accept a check while you are still treating.

The lawsuit clock

This is the statute of limitations, the deadline to file a lawsuit. In both Florida and Arizona, for most car crash injury claims, it is two years from the date of the crash. Florida cut it from four years to two in 2023, so older advice online may be wrong.

Two years sounds like plenty. It is not. Treatment has to stabilize, records have to be collected, and negotiating with an insurer drags on.

Some deadlines are much shorter. In Arizona, if the vehicle that injured you belonged to a city, county, or the state, such as a bus or a government truck, you must file a formal notice of claim within 180 days of the crash, or the claim is barred. Florida has its own notice rules for government vehicles. If a public vehicle was involved, do not wait.

What if you already waited a week or a month?

A week: you are fine on the lawsuit clock and likely fine on the insurance clock. In Florida you are still inside the 14-day medical window. In either state, see a doctor today.

A month: still call. You have not lost the right to make a claim. In Florida you have likely lost PIP if you have had no treatment, which makes the claim against the other driver's insurer more important, not less. A lawyer will want an honest explanation for the gap: you thought it would go away, you could not get time off, you had no way to pay. Those are real reasons.

What matters now is whether you keep waiting.

What to do today

• See a doctor and describe every symptom. Ask for a copy of the visit summary.
• Report the crash to your own insurer if you have not, facts only.
• Write down, dated, when each symptom started and what you could not do.
• Do not discuss your injuries with the other driver's insurer, and do not cash a check.
• Talk to a lawyer. Personal injury lawyers work on contingency, no fee unless they recover money for you, and the first conversation is free.

Call Clyne is a lawyer referral service, not a law firm. Stephen Clyne is not an attorney. This article is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. Talk to a licensed attorney in your state about your situation.