Yes. Under sovereign immunity in Florida, you can sue the government for a car accident caused by a negligent public employee or a known road hazard the government failed to fix. The law limits recovery to $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, and it requires written notice before any lawsuit is filed.
Heintz Law represents people hurt in crashes with buses, patrol cars, utility trucks, and other public vehicles across Bradenton, Palmetto, Manatee County, and the Suncoast. Founding Partner Steven E. Heintz and our Bradenton car accident attorneys handle claims against cities, counties, school districts, and state agencies, where the deadlines and procedures differ from an ordinary crash claim. For more on how car accident claims work under Florida law, visit our Bradenton car accident lawyer page.
Sovereign immunity is the legal rule that a government cannot be sued unless it agrees to be. Florida has waived that immunity for negligence claims, so the state, counties, cities, and their agencies can be held responsible for crashes the way a private person would, but only within limits the Legislature has set.
The waiver covers injuries and deaths caused by the negligent act of a government employee acting within the scope of the job. A Manatee County Area Transit bus driver who runs a red light, or a city truck driver who backs into traffic without looking, is the kind of case the waiver was written for.
The waiver comes with conditions that do not apply when the other driver is a private citizen. These include a cap on how much the government pays, a mandatory written notice, a waiting period before suit, and rules about who can be named in the lawsuit. Missing any of these conditions can end a claim that would otherwise be strong.
Florida's limited waiver applies to the state and its agencies, counties, cities, school districts, and public corporations that act for them. After a Bradenton crash, that commonly means a county transit bus, a city or county work truck, a law enforcement vehicle, a school bus, or a state agency responsible for the road.
Crashes in and around Bradenton that may involve a government defendant include:
Identifying the right defendant matters early. Manatee Avenue and US 41 are state highways, while many neighborhood streets are maintained by the county or a city. A private company working under a government contract, such as a road construction contractor in a work zone, generally does not share the government's immunity or its caps, which can change the value of the claim significantly.
Florida caps what a government pays at $200,000 for any one person and $300,000 for all claims from the same crash. A jury can return a larger verdict, but the amount above the cap can only be paid by a claims bill passed by the Legislature or through government insurance coverage above the limits.
The caps have not changed since 2010. In 2026, the Legislature passed a bill that would have raised them to $350,000 per person and $500,000 per incident, but the Governor vetoed it on June 30, 2026. For now, the $200,000 and $300,000 limits remain in force.
Other rules affect what a recovery against the government looks like:
Because of the cap, the categories of damages that remain available, such as medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering, are often measured against every other source of recovery in the case. That can include a private driver who shared fault, a private contractor, and your own coverage.
Before suing a Florida government entity, you must give it written notice of the claim. The notice goes to the agency involved, and for state agencies and other public bodies that are not a city or county, a copy also goes to the Florida Department of Financial Services. The notice is generally due within three years of the crash.
For a wrongful death claim, the written notice to the Department of Financial Services is due within two years of the death. The notice must also include the claimant's date and place of birth, Social Security number, and a statement about any unpaid court judgments of more than $200 owed to the state. These details sound minor, but an incomplete notice can lead to delays and disputes.
After the notice is filed, the government has six months to resolve or deny the claim before a lawsuit can be filed. In wrongful death cases, that waiting period is 90 days. If the agency does not respond in time, Florida treats the silence as a denial, and the lawsuit can proceed.
A negligence lawsuit against a Florida government entity must generally be filed within four years after the claim arises, and only after the notice and waiting period are complete. Wrongful death claims follow Florida's shorter two-year deadline. Waiting is risky, because notice rules and evidence loss create problems long before the final deadline.
Many crashes involve both a government vehicle and a private driver. Claims against a private driver for injuries in a crash after March 24, 2023, generally carry Florida's two-year statute of limitations. Those two sets of deadlines run at the same time, so a case that involves both should be treated as a two-year case from day one.
Evidence held by the government can also disappear. Bus video, dispatch recordings, vehicle maintenance logs, and road repair records may be kept only for limited periods, so early preservation requests and public records requests matter.
Sometimes. Florida courts generally protect a government's planning decisions, such as whether to widen a road or install a traffic signal. A government can be responsible for maintaining the roads and signals it already has, and for failing to fix or warn about a dangerous condition it knew about that drivers would not readily see.
Road condition claims often involve situations like these:
These cases turn on proof of what the government knew and when. Useful evidence includes prior complaints to the city or county, maintenance and work order records, earlier crash data at the same spot, and photographs of the condition taken as soon as possible after the crash, before a repair crew arrives.
Usually not. In Florida, a government employee who causes a crash while doing the job generally cannot be sued personally. The claim is brought against the agency that employs the driver. An employee can be personally liable only for acting in bad faith, with malicious purpose, or with wanton and willful disregard for safety.
Florida also has a specific rule for police pursuits. A law enforcement agency is generally not responsible for injuries caused by a driver fleeing from an officer if the officer believed the person committed a forcible felony, followed a written pursuit policy the officer was trained on, and did not drive with reckless disregard for human life. When any of those conditions is missing, the agency may be responsible.
The fleeing driver can still be held responsible in a separate claim. In pursuit cases, the at-fault driver's insurance and your own uninsured motorist coverage are often central to the recovery.
Crashes involving federal vehicles, such as mail delivery trucks or military vehicles, fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act rather than Florida's rules. A written claim must be filed with the federal agency within two years, and if the claim is denied, the case is decided by a federal judge without a jury.
Federal claims in this area are heard by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The federal process has its own forms, waiting periods, and limits on damages and fees, and the two-year claim deadline is strictly enforced. Identifying a federal vehicle early, including the agency and the vehicle number, avoids filing in the wrong place.
Call law enforcement, get medical care within 14 days to protect your personal injury protection benefits, and photograph the vehicle's agency markings and unit number. Keep every document, and be cautious about giving a recorded statement to the government's risk management office before you understand the notice and fault issues.
Personal injury protection, or PIP, is the no-fault coverage on your own auto policy that pays a share of medical bills and lost income regardless of who caused the crash. It generally pays first, even when the other vehicle belonged to a city or county.
Steps that protect a claim against a public entity include:
Our Bradenton car accident attorneys start by identifying every responsible party, public and private, and calendaring every notice and filing deadline. From there, the work moves through evidence preservation, the written notice, the waiting period, and, when needed, a lawsuit prepared for trial in the Manatee County Circuit Court.
At Heintz Law, every file is built from intake forward as if a jury will hear the case at trial. In government cases, that means sending preservation letters for bus video and maintenance records, filing public records requests, and retaining the outside professionals the case needs, such as accident reconstruction engineers and treating physicians. Our Manatee County car accident lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee, so there is no fee unless there is a recovery.
Heintz Law is located at 905 6th Avenue West, Bradenton, FL 34205, and represents injured people throughout Bradenton, Palmetto, Manatee County, and the surrounding counties of Sarasota, DeSoto, Hardee, Charlotte, and Hillsborough.
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