Hurt on Government Property in Florida | The Safir Lawyer

Public sidewalks, county parks, school campuses, courthouse garages, city piers: Floridians get hurt on government property every day, and the injuries look exactly like the ones that happen at a grocery store or an apartment complex. The cases do not. When the ground you fell on belongs to a city, a county, a school board, or a state agency, Florida attaches a separate set of rules to your claim, with a required written notice, a built-in waiting period, and a ceiling on what the government pays. Those rules can end a strong case before anyone ever argues about the sidewalk, and nobody on the government’s side is obligated to tell you they exist.

Claims against government bodies are premises work I take on directly, and as a member of the National Association of Premises Liability Attorneys I bring a heavy premises trial background to them. I represent injured people, not government risk-management departments or their insurers. I am a trial lawyer whose foundation was built in the courtroom as a public defender, where I tried case after case against the government’s own lawyers, and that experience matters when the defendant across the table is the government itself. A defendant tends to pay fair value once it sees I will take the case to a jury, and I will. I stay on your case personally, from the first call through trial.

The same fall, a different rulebook

For most of legal history you could not sue the government at all. The old rule was that the king could do no wrong, and when the king became the state, the rule survived the trip. Florida eventually decided that was unfair and enacted Fla. Stat. 768.28, which waives sovereign immunity and lets ordinary people sue the state, its agencies, and its subdivisions for negligence. But the waiver opens the door only partway. You can bring the claim on the government’s terms, on the government’s timeline, and up to the government’s limits, and missing any of those terms closes the door no matter how badly you were hurt or how clear the fault is.

The list of potential government defendants is longer than most people expect. A lifted sidewalk slab usually belongs to a city. A county typically runs the parks, the pier, and the courthouse garage. A school board owns the campus where a parent falls at pickup. Beyond those, Florida is full of special districts and public authorities that operate hospitals, marinas, transit systems, and stadiums, and every one of them carries these government rules with it.

The substance of the case does not change. A government owes you a reasonably safe walkway the same way a store owes you a reasonably safe aisle. A fall on a wet ramp at a public building is still analyzed like any other slip and fall, a fall over a broken step or a raised slab is still a trip and fall, and you still have to prove the government knew or should have known about the hazard. The government-property rules stack on top of that ordinary case. They are extra hurdles, and they come first.

The letter that has to come before everything

Before you may file a negligence lawsuit against a government body in Florida, Fla. Stat. 768.28(6) requires you to serve a formal written notice of your claim on the right agency. Courts treat that notice as a condition precedent, which is the legal way of saying no proper notice, no lawsuit. The statute then adds a second step most people never hear about: unless the claim is against a municipality or a county, a copy of the notice must also go to the Florida Department of Financial Services. That second copy is required for claims against school boards, state agencies, and the special districts and public authorities, not just claims against the state itself, and skipping it is one of the quiet ways an otherwise strong claim gets dismissed.

Notice what the statute does not require of the government. Nobody at the city or the county is obligated to tell you the rule exists. The risk-management adjuster who returns your call, takes down your information, and asks you to send the medical bills as they come in is under no duty to mention that your phone call started nothing and preserved nothing. Good cases die this way: an injured person negotiates politely with a friendly adjuster for a year, believing the open file is the claim. It is not. The only thing that preserves a claim against a government body is the formal written notice, delivered where the statute says, inside deadlines that were already running while everyone was being pleasant on the phone.

The waiting period nobody budgets for

Serving the notice does not open the courthouse door right away. Once the notice goes in, the agency gets a period to investigate before suit may be filed. Under Fla. Stat. 768.28(6)(d), if the agency does not finally dispose of the claim within six months, the claim is treated as denied and the lawsuit can go forward. The idea is to give the government a fair chance to look into what happened and settle honest claims without litigation. The practical effect is that every government case carries a delay built into its front end.

That waiting period is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to start early. A notice served in the first weeks lets the investigation window run while you are still treating, when it costs the case nothing. A notice served late turns that same window into a crisis, because of the arithmetic in the next section.

The deadlines: two clocks running side by side

The notice has its own deadline. In general it must be served within three years of the injury, and within two years in a wrongful death case. That sounds roomy until you put it next to the other clock. The lawsuit itself is governed by Florida’s two-year negligence limitations period, Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a) for injuries on or after March 24, 2023, and the notice deadline does nothing to stretch it. For an ordinary injury claim, the lawsuit clock keeps running while the agency investigates.

Run the arithmetic and you will see the trap. You have two years to file suit. You cannot file until the notice has been served and the investigation window has run its course. So the real, practical deadline for serving the notice arrives far earlier than the three years printed in the statute. Someone who waits eighteen months to send the letter has left the case almost no room to breathe, and someone who waits longer may have left it none. In a live case, the three-year notice figure is one of the most misleading numbers in Florida law, because you will almost never actually have three years. Evidence has its own clock too: sidewalks get ground down, rotten boards get replaced, and garage lighting gets fixed, so the scene needs to be documented before the repair crew gets there.

The caps and the claim bill

There is one more condition on the waiver, and honesty requires me to explain it. Fla. Stat. 768.28(5) caps what a government entity pays on a judgment. As of this writing, the cap is $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, no matter what a jury awards. If a jury decides your harm is worth more, the government still pays only up to the cap. Anything above it can be collected only through a claim bill, an act of the Florida Legislature in which lawmakers vote on whether to pay the excess. A claim bill is a separate, political, and slow process. Some claim bills pass. Many never do.

I raise the cap at the first meeting for two reasons. First, so the number never ambushes you later. Second, because the cap changes how a government case has to be valued and worked from day one. It shapes settlement strategy, and it makes it essential to identify every responsible party early, because the cap protects the government entity, not a private maintenance contractor or other private defendant whose negligence contributed to the hazard. Finding those defendants is part of the ownership work described next.

When private looks public, and public looks private

Property does not announce its owner. A storefront that looks like any private business may be leased space inside a county-owned building. The sidewalk in front of a private shop may sit on a public right of way the city is responsible for maintaining. A parking garage, a marina, a hospital, or a stadium may be operated by a public authority that carries these government rules with it even though nothing about the place looks governmental. The reverse happens too: a plaza or park-like space that feels public may be privately owned, which means the ordinary premises rules apply and the notice detour never existed. The same ownership question shows up in violence cases, where an attack in a publicly operated garage raises these notice rules while the same attack on private property is analyzed under Florida’s negligent security law.

You cannot tell by looking, and guessing wrong costs you in either direction. Guess private when it is public and you can burn the notice deadline. Guess public when it is private and you can lose months on a detour you never needed. Confirming ownership through property records, leases, and maintenance agreements is among the first work I do in a premises case, and the possibility of government ownership is the single biggest reason that work happens in the first days rather than the first year.

What to do if a government may own the property

Treat the case as urgent from day one. Photograph the scene and the defect before it is repaired, keep the shoes you were wearing, get medical care and follow through with it, and get legal advice early. Everywhere else in premises law, early action makes a case stronger. Here, early action is what keeps the case alive at all, because a friendly phone call to the city, an open file with a risk-management adjuster, and months of pleasant negotiation preserve absolutely nothing. If there is any chance a government body owns the place where you were hurt, contact me for a free strategy session. I will work to confirm who owns the property, serve the statutory notice correctly, and manage both clocks so the deadlines work for your case instead of against it. For how the rest of the case gets built once these hurdles are cleared, see the premises liability overview.

Common Questions

Can I sue a city or county in Florida if I was hurt on public property?

Yes. Fla. Stat. 768.28 waives sovereign immunity and allows negligence claims against the state, its agencies, and its subdivisions, including cities, counties, and school boards. But the waiver comes with strict conditions: a formal written notice of claim must be served before suit, the agency gets an investigation period before you can file, and there are statutory caps on what the entity pays. Missing the conditions can end the case regardless of how clear the fault is.

What is the notice of claim, and who has to receive it?

It is a formal written notice describing your claim, served on the agency you intend to sue, and Florida courts treat it as a prerequisite to filing suit. Unless the claim is against a municipality or a county, a copy must also go to the Florida Department of Financial Services. That second copy applies to claims against school boards, state agencies, and special districts and authorities, and omitting it is a common and avoidable way claims get dismissed.

How long do I have to bring a claim against a government body?

Two clocks run side by side. The written notice generally must be served within three years of the injury, and within two years for wrongful death. Separately, the lawsuit itself is subject to Florida’s two-year negligence limitations period, and serving the notice does not pause that clock for an ordinary injury claim. Because the agency also gets an investigation period after the notice before you can file, the practical deadline for serving the notice arrives much earlier than the three years printed in the statute.

Is there a limit on what the government will pay?

Yes. Fla. Stat. 768.28(5) caps a government entity’s payment on a judgment, currently at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, no matter what a jury awards. Amounts above the cap can be collected only through a claim bill passed by the Florida Legislature, which is a separate and uncertain process. The cap protects the government entity, not private co-defendants such as maintenance contractors, which is one reason identifying every responsible party early matters.

I have been talking to the city’s adjuster about my fall. Does that count as my claim?

No. Phone calls, open files, and friendly negotiations with a risk-management adjuster do not satisfy the statute, and nobody on the government’s side is required to tell you that. The only thing that preserves a claim against a government body is the formal written notice, served on the right agency, with the second copy filed where the law requires, inside the deadlines. If you have been negotiating casually for months, get advice now, because both clocks have been running the whole time.

Related: Premises liability overview, Slip and fall, Trip and fall, Negligent security, Inadequate maintenance, and About Rory Safir.

This page is general information about Florida claims against government entities, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The governing authorities include Fla. Stat. 768.28 (the waiver of sovereign immunity, the pre-suit notice requirement, the investigation period, and the payment caps) and 95.11(5)(a) (the two-year limitations period for negligence claims accruing on or after March 24, 2023). Deadlines and notice requirements are summarized as general rules; exceptions and shorter periods can apply, and the statutory caps and procedures described are those in effect as of this writing. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.