Florida law requires that motorists in the state carry two types of coverage as a part of every car insurance policy sold in the State of Florida: personal injury protection (PIP) and property damage liability (PDL). Each motorist licensed by the State of Florida is required to carry $10,000 in PIP coverage as well $10,000 in PDL coverage. Florida law is a “no fault” insurance state, which means that it does not matter who is at fault when an automobile accident occurs, for the available PIP benefits to apply to medical expenses or income losses that result from an accident. PDL provides coverage if a motorist damages someone else’s car in an automobile collision. However, neither of these types of required insurance coverages will cover damage which occurs to a motorist’s vehicle as a result of an accident. This therefore leaves the motorist exposed to often substantial car repair bills in the event of an accident that results in damage to the motorist’s vehicle.

By contrast to PIP and PDL coverages, Florida motorists are not required to carry collision insurance as a part of their automobile insurance policy under Florida law. Collision insurance provides coverage for damage which occurs to the policyholder’s vehicle in an accident. Some examples of situations in which collision coverage would kick in would be damage to your vehicle caused by hitting a tree, hitting a curb or pothole, backing into another car in a parking lot, or, most commonly, being hit or hitting another car in an automobile accident.

Collision coverage typically is accompanied by a deductible, which is a fixed amount of the repair bill that the motorist is personally responsible to pay. As an example, if a Florida motorist has a $500 deductible and hits a tree, thereby causing $2,500 in damage to his or her car, then the motorist would be responsible for the first $500 of the car repair bills. The insurance company would step in to cover the remaining $2,000.