When must a Florida wrongful-death claimant present a government claim to DFS?

Establish the actual wrongful-death claim, claimant and governmental defendant.

Determine legal accrual and the operative notice and limitation provisions.

Preserve written presentment, each required recipient and actual disposition.

1. Establish the actual wrongful-death claim, claimant and governmental defendant.
2. Do not convert statutory years or months into fixed day counts. Establish the governing computation provision for the actual presentment, denial or court-filing act. This conditional guide computes no date.
3. Check the observed statutory holidays, actual clerk calendar and chief-justice directions.
4. Complete the required act with the proper court or recipient.

A court clerk holiday does not by itself establish agency presentment or a statutory denial date. Establish the applicable computation provision and recipient procedure. Apply the observed New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Thanksgiving Day, Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Day holidays. Section 110.117 observes Saturday holidays on the preceding Friday and Sunday holidays on the following Monday. Rule 2.514 also includes clerk-observed holidays and days designated by the chief justice or chief judge. An ineligible final day moves in the counting direction. The bundled Florida calendar covers 2026 through 2028. Verify additional closures and chief-justice extensions separately.

The isolated two-year accrual preset cannot establish the complete wrongful-death presentment, recipient and lawsuit history. The general paragraph and wrongful-death subparagraph require comparison. No computed or paid date is released.

Identify each legally required notice recipient

Section 768.28(6)(a) requires written presentment to the appropriate agency. It also requires DFS presentment, subject to its express municipality, county and Florida Space Authority exception. The wrongful-death subparagraph expressly names DFS. Preserve the actual defendant classification and applicable treatment before omitting any notice.

Notice does not move the accrual date

Section 768.28(6)(b) makes agency notice and denial conditions precedent, without making them elements of the cause of action or changing its accrual. Section 95.031(1) generally uses the occurrence of the last element. An incident, a later demand and the legal accrual date are not automatically the same event.

Wrongful death has a ninety-day deemed-denial branch

Section 768.28(6)(d) treats failure to make final disposition within ninety days after filing as final denial in wrongful-death actions. It expressly tolls the wrongful-death limitation for the time taken to deny the claim. Establish actual filing, earlier written denial and the applicable tolling history separately.

The lawsuit period is a separate comparison

Section 768.28(14) sends wrongful-death actions to section 95.11(5), whose paragraph (e) states two years. Presentment, denial and any applicable tolling affect the full history; the notice period is not a second period added automatically after denial.

The separate disclosure duty has its own boundary

Section 768.28(6)(c) requires prescribed claimant identification and adjudicated unpaid state obligations. Paragraph (d) requires complete, accurate and timely compliance before settlement payment, discovery closing or trial commencement, whichever is sooner. Preserve that separate obligation without treating the later disclosure boundary as an extension of presentment.

• This guide does not establish accrual, a sovereign-immunity waiver, completed presentment, an applicable tolling period or permission to file suit.
• Check the governing historical edition, actual motions, orders, clerk holidays and filing receipts.

• Establish the actual wrongful-death claim, claimant and governmental defendant.
• Determine legal accrual and the operative notice and limitation provisions.
• Preserve written presentment, each required recipient and actual disposition.
• Section 768.28(6)(a) requires written presentment to the appropriate agency. It also requires DFS presentment, subject to its express municipality, county and Florida Space Authority exception. The wrongful-death subparagraph expressly names DFS. Preserve the actual defendant classification and applicable treatment before omitting any notice.
• Section 768.28(6)(b) makes agency notice and denial conditions precedent, without making them elements of the cause of action or changing its accrual. Section 95.031(1) generally uses the occurrence of the last element. An incident, a later demand and the legal accrual date are not automatically the same event.
• Section 768.28(6)(d) treats failure to make final disposition within ninety days after filing as final denial in wrongful-death actions. It expressly tolls the wrongful-death limitation for the time taken to deny the claim. Establish actual filing, earlier written denial and the applicable tolling history separately.
• Section 768.28(14) sends wrongful-death actions to section 95.11(5), whose paragraph (e) states two years. Presentment, denial and any applicable tolling affect the full history; the notice period is not a second period added automatically after denial.
• Section 768.28(6)(c) requires prescribed claimant identification and adjudicated unpaid state obligations. Paragraph (d) requires complete, accurate and timely compliance before settlement payment, discovery closing or trial commencement, whichever is sooner. Preserve that separate obligation without treating the later disclosure boundary as an extension of presentment.
• Preserve the actual written claim, each legally required recipient, delivery or filing evidence and the actual disposition. Presentment is not court filing or service of process. Section 768.28(7) separately requires process on the agency head and DFS, subject to its stated local-government and Space Authority exceptions. A compliant notice does not establish a waiver, timely suit or successful service.