Picture a Miami man who loses his leg after a city bus runs him down. He has a clear-cut case, a devastating injury, and a jury that agrees he deserves millions. But because the bus belonged to a public transit agency, a 15-year-old Florida law caps his recovery at $200,000. To collect anything close to what he’s actually owed, he has to wait for the Florida Legislature to pass a one-off “claims bill” on his behalf. That’s exactly what happened in 2026, with legislators approving a $4.1 million claims bill just for that single case. One person. One bus. One act of Congress required to correct an outdated law.

That’s the system Florida has been running on since 2010. As of March 2026, it’s finally changing.

What Florida’s Legislature Actually Did

MetricOld Cap (2010-2026)New Cap (HB 145, 2026+)Change
Per-Person Limit$200,000$350,000+75%
Per-Incident Limit$300,000$500,000+67%
Years Without Adjustment150-

On March 12, 2026, Florida passed HB 145, raising the sovereign immunity caps for the first time in 15 years. The vote wasn’t close. The Senate approved it 36-0. The House passed its version 104-7. For context, getting 104 Florida House members to agree on anything is genuinely remarkable, which tells you how obviously broken the old limits had become.

The new numbers: $350,000 per person and $500,000 per incident. Those replace the previous caps of $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident, which had been frozen since 2010, according to the Florida Senate’s official bill summary.

Sovereign immunity, if you’re not familiar with the term, is a legal doctrine that limits how much you can sue the government for, even when a government employee clearly caused your injury through negligence. It applies to state agencies, cities, counties, and public hospitals. Think traffic accidents caused by government workers, medical malpractice at a public facility, or a slip-and-fall on government property. The government isn’t untouchable under Florida law, but it has always had a ceiling on what it owes you, regardless of how badly you’re hurt.

That ceiling just got raised. It’s still a ceiling.

Why 15 Years Without a Change Actually Hurt Real People

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Here’s what bothered me most about the old cap, and I say this as someone who spent years on the insurance side of these claims: $200,000 sounds like real money until you price out what a serious injury actually costs in 2026.

A leg amputation. A traumatic brain injury. Spinal damage from a government vehicle running a red light. Any one of those can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in emergency care, surgery, and long-term rehabilitation before you’ve even counted lost wages or the impact on your family. The cap wasn’t designed to cover catastrophic injuries. It was designed to limit the government’s exposure regardless of what your injury actually cost you.

Rep. Fiona McFarland, who sponsored the bill, made this point directly. She argued, and she’s right, that the $200,000 limit actively discouraged attorneys from taking valid government-negligence cases in the first place. If your injury costs $800,000 to treat and the maximum possible recovery is $200,000, most attorneys simply can’t afford to take your case. The economics don’t work. So seriously injured victims were being left without legal representation, not because their cases were weak, but because the cap made them financially unviable. As Florida Politics reported in March 2026, the legislature ultimately landed on the increase after significant debate about how far the numbers should go.

The claims bill process, which is what that Miami man had to go through, exists as a workaround. But it requires individual legislative action, it takes years, and it’s not guaranteed. Most people who get hurt by a government vehicle don’t have the resources or the patience to navigate that path. They settle for whatever they can get, which under the old system was capped at a number set in 2010.

What Changes, and What Doesn’t

The new caps give seriously injured Floridians more room to recover real compensation without needing a separate act of the legislature. If you’re hit by a county vehicle tomorrow, your claim is now capped at $350,000, not $200,000. That’s a 75% increase per person, and the per-incident cap of $500,000 matters when multiple people are hurt in the same government-caused accident.

What doesn’t change: the basic structure of sovereign immunity is still there. The government still has a cap. You still have to prove negligence. You still have procedural requirements, including notice of claim rules, that are different from suing a private party. Those rules are strict and have short deadlines, which is something anyone hurt in a government-related accident should understand immediately.

The increase also doesn’t help retroactively. If your claim was already resolved or your statute of limitations expired under the old rules, HB 145 doesn’t reopen anything. This change is forward-looking.

And while $350,000 is better than $200,000, it still falls short of what catastrophic injuries genuinely cost. Someone with permanent disability from a government-caused accident can easily have lifetime care needs that dwarf the new cap. The claims bill process still exists for those situations, but as the Islander News reported in March 2026, lobbying around this bill was intense, with various interests debating exactly where the numbers should land. The result is an improvement, not a complete fix.

What This Means If You’re Dealing With a Government Injury Claim Right Now

If you or someone you know was recently hurt by a government employee, on government property, or at a public hospital, the timing of HB 145 matters for claims that arise going forward. But a few things are worth knowing right now, not in six months.

Notice requirements for government injury claims in Florida are not the same as for private claims. You typically have three years to file suit, but you must give the government formal notice within a specific window before you can sue. Miss that step and you can lose your right to recover entirely, regardless of how strong your case is.

Attorney selection matters more in government cases than almost any other type of claim. Not every personal injury attorney has experience with sovereign immunity claims, the special rules around claims bills, or the procedural differences that apply when the defendant is a government entity. The new caps make these cases more financially viable to pursue, which is exactly what Rep. McFarland argued was the point. That means more attorneys should be willing to take strong cases now than would have considered them under the old numbers.

This is also a moment where consulting an attorney sooner rather than later is genuinely important. I’m not saying that to fill space. Government claim procedures are technical, deadlines are real, and the difference between a properly filed claim and a missed notice requirement can cost you everything.

Florida’s first sovereign immunity increase in 15 years is real progress. It’s not a complete overhaul, and it won’t make whole everyone who’s been underpaid on a government negligence claim over the past decade and a half. But for anyone hurt by a government entity starting now, the numbers are finally closer to matching the reality of what serious injuries actually cost. That’s worth understanding before you sign anything or accept any settlement offer.

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This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws vary by state. Consult a licensed personal injury attorney in your jurisdiction for advice specific to your situation. Most personal injury attorneys offer free consultations.

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