Where an Orlando truck case is filed

Orlando is in Orange County (opens in a new tab), and Orange and Osceola counties together make up Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit (opens in a new tab). It is a state trial court. The federal court of appeals that is also called the Ninth Circuit is a different court.

Claims above $50,000 go to the circuit court. County courts hear cases up to that amount (opens in a new tab), and circuit courts hear the actions at law the county courts cannot (opens in a new tab).

The Ninth Circuit gives the address of the Orange County Courthouse as 425 N. Orange Avenue, Orlando (opens in a new tab). A case is filed with the Orange County Clerk of Courts, whose Civil Division is in Suite 350 of that courthouse (opens in a new tab).

The court serves the whole county, and most of its residents live outside the city limits. The Census Bureau’s estimates for July 1, 2025 put 333,888 people in the City of Orlando and 1,528,002 in Orange County (opens in a new tab).

A case is generally brought in the county where the defendant resides or where the cause of action accrued (opens in a new tab), which for a crash usually means the county where it happened. Osceola County is in the same circuit and has its own courthouse, the Jon B. Morgan Osceola County Courthouse in Kissimmee (opens in a new tab). Seminole County belongs to the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit (opens in a new tab), so a crash there may be filed in a different court.

A carrier from another state may be able to move a case to federal court.

When every defendant is from another state and more than $75,000 is in dispute (opens in a new tab), the defendants can ask to move the case to federal court (opens in a new tab).

Orange County is in the Middle District of Florida, and federal law lists Orlando among the places where that court is held (opens in a new tab).

Start with the buses. LYNX is the name the region’s public bus system has done business under since 1992 (opens in a new tab). Its official name is the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, and the statute that created the Authority calls it an agency of the state (opens in a new tab).

It matters because a claim against a public body follows different rules. One Florida statute waives the government’s immunity from injury claims only to the extent the statute says (opens in a new tab), and it covers state agencies, counties and cities alike. It also reaches corporations primarily acting as instrumentalities or agencies of the state, counties or municipalities (opens in a new tab).

Before a lawsuit can be filed, the claim must be presented in writing to the agency and, unless it is against a city or a county, to the Department of Financial Services as well, within 3 years after it accrues (opens in a new tab). In a wrongful death case the period is 2 years. The government then has 6 months to respond, or 90 days in a wrongful death case (opens in a new tab). If it does not, the claim is treated as denied and the suit can go ahead.

The amounts are limited. The State and its agencies and subdivisions cannot be made to pay more than $200,000 to one person or $300,000 for one incident (opens in a new tab) without a further act of the Legislature. A 2026 bill to raise those limits passed both chambers and was vetoed on June 30, 2026 (opens in a new tab).

The airport has its own authority. Orlando International is managed by the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, governed by a seven-member board (opens in a new tab): the mayors of Orlando and Orange County and five members appointed by the Governor. This page does not cover how the rules above apply to a claim against the Authority.

Florida gives a claim founded on negligence two years (opens in a new tab). The period runs from the time the cause of action accrues (opens in a new tab), a date an attorney works out from the facts.

That is shorter than it used to be. The legislature cut the period from four years to two in 2023, and the change applies to causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023 (opens in a new tab).

A wrongful death action must also be brought within two years (opens in a new tab). Claims against the State, a county or a city follow a schedule of their own, set out above.