Invented, on purpose

Jane and Jon are not clients. They are not a past case and this is not a result. Florida Bar rules are careful about what a lawyer may suggest about outcomes, and rightly so, because nobody can tell you what your case will produce.

The point of the example is the sequence of coverage questions, which is what actually decides a catastrophic motorcycle claim and which almost nobody knows in advance.

The scenario

Jon is riding east on Clark Road on a Saturday morning with Jane as passenger. A car waiting to turn left out of a plaza misjudges the gap and pulls across. Neither rider has anywhere to go.

Both are taken to Sarasota Memorial, the county's only trauma programme. Jane's injuries heal over months. Jon's do not: a spinal injury that changes what work he can do and what his house needs to look like.

The first problem: there is no PIP

Here is the rule that catches almost every rider. Florida's no-fault system applies to motor vehicles with four or more wheels, per the definition in section 627.732. A motorcycle is not one.

So there is no standing behind Jon's emergency care. The fourteen-day treatment rule that governs car crashes is not the obstacle here; the absence of a first payer is. What fills that gap is health insurance, MedPay if the policy carries it, or providers agreeing to treat under a letter of protection and wait for the claim.

The second problem: the other driver's limits

The turning driver is clearly at . Under section 316.122 the duty to yield was theirs.

Florida still does not require most drivers to carry coverage at all, and many who carry it hold modest limits. In a case where one rider needs care for the rest of his life, a liability policy can be exhausted long before it approaches the actual loss. Fault being obvious does not create money that is not there.

The third problem, which is often the answer: their own coverage

The claim then turns to what Jon and Jane carry themselves.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage applies when the at-fault driver has nothing or not enough, and it protects a rider on a motorcycle as much as in a car
Stacking multiplies the limit across insured vehicles, and stacked is the default in Florida unless a non-stacked form was signed
A resident relative's policy may reach them depending on household composition
MedPay on the motorcycle policy, if elected, covers medical costs regardless of fault

Whether those boxes were ticked years earlier, at a moment nobody was thinking about a spinal injury, is frequently the single most important fact in the file.

What gets argued about anyway

Two things, predictably.

Speed. A driver who misjudges a motorcycle's approach usually believes the rider was going too fast, and judging a bike's closing speed is genuinely harder than judging a car's. Since 2023 modified comparative under section 768.81 apportions accordingly, and above half the fault a claimant recovers nothing.

Helmets. Florida requires one under twenty-one, and permits a rider over that age to ride without one if the required medical benefit coverage is carried. So riding unhelmeted is lawful and is not a defence to somebody else's left turn. It comes up regardless, and it is met with medical evidence rather than apology.

Why the story stops

Because the next part would be a number, and a number would be a promise.

The useful thing to take from an invented couple is a real question: do you know whether your own policy carries , and whether it stacks? That is a five-minute call to your agent, and for a rider it is worth more than anything on this page.

When a Sarasota Ride Ends in a Lifetime Injury