Where do I get the crash report?

Use Florida's crash report request portal at https://www.flhsmv.gov/traffic-crash-reports/. The claims record states that Florida crash reports are confidential for 60 days after filing, with release during that period limited to the people and entities named in the statute.

Which court hears a Miami Gardens car accident lawsuit?

The structured court data for this page lists the Miami-Dade County Court and the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County. Which one applies depends on the type and amount of the claim, but both are part of the Miami-Dade County trial court system.

What is the local government claim deadline here?

The law record for this page shows a 36-month government claim deadline in Florida. The state-law section on the page gives the rule itself; the local practical step is to identify early whether the vehicle or roadway issue involves a city, county, or state agency.

Does the 60-day report confidentiality rule matter for my next steps?

Yes. The claims record states that Florida crash reports are confidential for 60 days after filing. In practice, that means you should request the report promptly through FLHSMV and keep other evidence handy—photos, medical records, and witness information—while waiting for broader public access to open.

Miami-Dade County

Miami Gardens car accident claim factors

If your crash happened in Miami Gardens, the process is fairly centralized. Your report was usually handled by the Miami Gardens Police Department, the Miami-dade County Police Department - Sheriff and Port Services Bureau, or the Florida Highway Patrol, and any lawsuit would usually land in the Miami-Dade County court system. That is useful because, unlike a larger region with multiple overlapping city systems, you can usually trace the path from crash report to court in one county: Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Estimate my case All Florida rules

60,000

Miami-Dade County crashes, 2024

29,354

People reported injured

282

People killed, 2024

50%

Fault bars recovery above

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Local data

Miami-Dade County crash snapshot

Reported by Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for 2024. Miami Gardens sits in Miami-Dade County, and most local crash data is published at the county level rather than by city.

60,000

Reported crashes in 2024

29,354

People reported injured

164

Crashes per day, on average

Source: Florida Health CHARTS — Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes, Ten Years Data by County (Florida Department of Health, from FLHSMV records). Miami-Dade is published as a rounded figure of 60,000 for 2024.. Reviewed 2026-07-29.

Local factors

How a Miami Gardens claim usually moves from crash to filing

Start with the report. In Miami Gardens, the investigating agency is usually the Miami Gardens Police Department, but it can also be the Miami-dade County Police Department - Sheriff and Port Services Bureau or the Florida Highway Patrol depending on where the crash happened and who responded. In Florida, crash reports are confidential for 60 days after filing and are released during that period only to people and entities named in the statute, so getting the report usually means using the Florida crash report request portal at https://www.flhsmv.gov/traffic-crash-reports/ and being ready to show you qualify for access.

Next, put your file together around the basics the insurer and, if necessary, a participating attorney licensed in Florida will actually use: the crash report, medical records, bills, wage-loss proof, photos, and any witness information. The page already shows Florida's no-fault and deadline rules from the law record, so the practical local point is where disputes go if they do not settle. In Miami-Dade County, the trial courts listed for civil cases are the Miami-Dade County Court and the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, both serving the same county as Miami Gardens.

County crash volume helps explain what the local system looks like. For 2024, Miami-Dade County had 60,000 total crashes and 29,354 injury crashes, according to Florida Health CHARTS using Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles records. In the same year, the FLHSMV Crash Dashboard reported 268 fatal crashes and 282 fatalities in Miami-Dade County. That is a very high raw volume for one county, but the process is still concentrated into one county court structure rather than spread across several neighboring counties, which makes the filing path clearer even when the docket is busy.

Context matters more than the raw count. Miami Gardens itself had a 2020 Census population of 116,173, while the claims and court path runs through all of Miami-Dade County. Because this county is smaller in geographic scope than a state-wide system but much larger in crash volume than many Florida counties, your checklist is usually straightforward: identify which of the three listed agencies took the report, request it through FLHSMV, preserve your records during the 60-day confidentiality period, and if a lawsuit becomes necessary, determine whether filing belongs in the Miami-Dade County Court or the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County.

Your crash report

How to get your Miami Gardens crash report

Where to request it: https://www.flhsmv.gov/traffic-crash-reports/

Who responded

Agencies that respond to crashes in Miami Gardens

Which agency attended determines who to contact about an incomplete or incorrect report.

Miami Gardens Police Department

City police

Miami-dade County Police Department - Sheriff and Port Services Bureau

County sheriff

Florida Highway Patrol

State patrol

Venue

Courts that hear Miami-Dade County civil cases

Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County

General civil claims

Miami-Dade County Court

Smaller civil claims

Florida law

How fault is allocated in Florida

Florida follows modified comparative negligence with a 50% bar. Below that line your recovery is reduced in proportion to your fault. Above it, you recover nothing at all, which makes the fault allocation the central dispute in most contested claims.

As an example, a $100,000 claim in which you are found 20% responsible would yield $80,000. The same claim with 51% responsibility attributed to you would yield nothing, because Florida bars recovery above 50%.

Deadlines

Florida filing deadlines

Missing a deadline generally ends a claim regardless of how strong it is. Government claims are on a much shorter clock than ordinary claims.

2 years

Personal injury

2 years

Wrongful death

3 years

Claim against a government agency

Reviewed 2026-07-29. Not yet reviewed by a licensed attorney. This is general information, not legal advice.

Florida insurance

Florida is a no-fault state

$10,000 in personal injury protection, which pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost wages. Treatment must begin within 14 days of the crash, and the full $10,000 is only available if a medical provider certifies an emergency medical condition — otherwise the benefit is limited to $2,500.

Florida does not require ordinary private-passenger drivers to carry bodily injury liability coverage at all. The mandatory minimum is $10,000 in property damage liability alongside the coverage above. This means the driver who injured you may have no liability coverage for your injuries, which is why uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy frequently determines what a serious claim can actually collect.

Where crashes concentrate

Corridors that generate the most Miami-Dade County claims

These are the routes that produce the highest crash volume or the most serious collisions locally. Where a crash happened affects both the injury pattern and who may be responsible.

I-95 through Miami

The primary north-south freeway through the county and the corridor that produces the highest-speed collisions in Miami-Dade, including the express lane transitions between downtown and the Golden Glades interchange.

US-1 / South Dixie Highway

A long surface arterial with frequent signalized intersections, heavy transit use, and a parallel bike path, which produces a mix of rear-end, left-turn, and pedestrian collisions.

Palmetto Expressway (SR 826)

Carries commuter and freight traffic across the county with closely spaced ramps, a common setting for merge and sideswipe collisions.

Biscayne Boulevard

A wide multi-lane boulevard through dense pedestrian areas downtown and in Edgewater, where mid-block crossings are frequent.

Government defendants

If a government agency was involved

Florida crash reports are confidential for 60 days after filing, released in that window only to the parties involved, their attorneys and insurers, and certain others named in the statute.

Case types

Claims we can estimate in Miami Gardens

Auto accident Personal injury Medical malpractice Workplace injury Product liability Wrongful death

Local questions

Miami Gardens questions

Usually it was the Miami Gardens Police Department. Depending on the location and response, it could also have been the Miami-dade County Police Department - Sheriff and Port Services Bureau or the Florida Highway Patrol.

Transparency

Sources and review dates

Every figure on this page traces to one of the sources below. Geography and population come from the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. Census Bureau — Miami Gardens place GEOID 1245060, population 116,173 (2024 Population Estimates), land area 18.476 sq mi (2023 Gazetteer).
Florida Health CHARTS — Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes, Ten Years Data by County (Florida Department of Health, from FLHSMV records). Miami-Dade is published as a rounded figure of 60,000 for 2024. · reviewed 2026-07-29
FLHSMV Crash Dashboard · reviewed 2026-07-29
HIFLD Local Law Enforcement Locations, derived from the BJS Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (2008), imagery-validated to 2018 · reviewed 2026-07-30
Florida Constitution Article V, and the Florida State Courts System trial court structure · reviewed 2026-07-30
Fla. Stat. § 95.11 — Limitations other than for the recovery of real property · reviewed 2026-07-29
Fla. Stat. § 768.81 — Comparative fault · reviewed 2026-07-29
Fla. Stat. § 627.736 — Required personal injury protection benefits · reviewed 2026-07-29
Fla. Stat. § 768.28 — Waiver of sovereign immunity in tort actions · reviewed 2026-07-29
Florida DHSMV — Insurance requirements · reviewed 2026-07-29
North Broward Hospital District v. Kalitan, 219 So. 3d 49 (Fla. 2017) · reviewed 2026-07-29
Fla. Stat. § 768.73 — Punitive damages; limitation · reviewed 2026-07-29

About this page

State law on this page was last reviewed 2026-07-29 and has not been reviewed by a licensed attorney. It is general information, not legal advice for your situation.

Local commentary on this page was prepared 2026-07-31 and checked automatically against the sources cited on this page. It has not been individually reviewed by a person.

We do not publish attorney profiles or rankings, and nothing on this page recommends or endorses any attorney. CaseValuation.com is operated by LuxeLaw LLC, which is not a law firm.

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