If you believe you were fired, demoted, harassed, or passed over because of your race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, or another protected trait, the clock started running on the day it happened. In Florida, most private-sector and state and local government employees must file a charge of discrimination with an agency before they can sue, and the first deadline is short: 365 days to file with the Florida Commission on Human Relations (FCHR) under state law, and 300 days to file with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for federal claims. Because the 300-day deadline arrives first, the safest approach is to treat 300 days as your real deadline, and to file much sooner if you can.
There is also news. On July 1, 2026, Florida changed the deadline for filing a lawsuit under the Florida Civil Rights Act after the agency stage ends. This article walks through the deadlines step by step, explains what changed, and lists what to do now.
What are the deadlines to file a discrimination charge in Florida?
Florida has two overlapping systems, one state and one federal, and most employees can use both at once.
Florida Civil Rights Act (FCRA): a complaint must be filed with the FCHR "within 365 days of the alleged violation." See § 760.11(1), Fla. Stat. The statute also says that a complaint filed with the EEOC counts, and that the filing date is the earliest date it was filed with either agency.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act: because Florida has its own fair-employment agency, the federal charge deadline is 300 days from the discriminatory act. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1). The ADA uses Title VII's procedures.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA): also 300 days in states like Florida that have their own age-discrimination law. See 29 U.S.C. § 626(d).
Federal employees: a much shorter deadline applies. A federal worker must contact an agency EEO counselor within 45 days of the discriminatory act or the effective date of the personnel action. See 29 C.F.R. § 1614.105(a)(1).
In practice, one charge filed with the EEOC is usually "dual-filed" with the FCHR, so a single timely filing can preserve both state and federal claims. The firm explains the charge process in more detail on our EEOC charges page.
When does the clock start?
The deadline usually runs from the date of the discriminatory act itself, such as the day you were told you were fired or the day a promotion went to someone else, not the day you later learned the reason or decided to take action.
The U.S. Supreme Court drew an important line in National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101 (2002). Each "discrete" act, such as a termination, a failure to promote, a denial of transfer, or a refusal to hire, starts its own clock, and a charge must be filed within the deadline for that act. An older discrete act can be lost even if it is related to a newer one that is timely. A hostile work environment claim is different, because it is built from a series of events over time. Under Morgan, a hostile environment charge is timely if at least one act that is part of the hostile environment happened within the filing period, and the court can then consider the whole course of conduct.
That distinction matters for people who wait. An employee who was denied a promotion two years ago and fired last month may still have a timely claim about the firing, but not about the promotion.
How long do I have to sue after filing a charge?
Filing a charge is only the first step. Once the agency stage ends, a second, separate deadline applies to filing a lawsuit.
Federal claims (Title VII, ADA, ADEA). When the EEOC dismisses a charge or issues a Notice of Right to Sue, the employee has 90 days to file suit. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1); 29 U.S.C. § 626(e). Ninety days is not long, and courts generally enforce it. Read every letter from the EEOC on the day it arrives and note the date you received it.
Florida Civil Rights Act claims. This is where the law changed in 2026, explained in the next section. Florida's civil rights law also lets an employee choose an administrative hearing instead of a lawsuit in some situations, and that route has its own deadline: if the FCHR finds no reasonable cause, a request for an administrative hearing must be made within 35 days, or the claim is barred. See § 760.11(7), Fla. Stat.
What changed in Florida on July 1, 2026?
For years, Florida courts disagreed about how long an employee had to file an FCRA lawsuit when the FCHR did not decide the complaint within 180 days, and about whether an EEOC Notice of Right to Sue started Florida's one-year clock. In 2026 the Legislature passed House Bill 1407, which was signed by the Governor and took effect July 1, 2026 (chapter 2026-116, Laws of Florida). It amended section 760.11(5), Florida Statutes, to set out two rules:
If there is a decision or a right-to-sue notice: a lawsuit must be filed no later than 1 year after the date of the FCHR's reasonable cause determination or the issuance of an EEOC Notice of Right to Sue, "whichever is earlier."
If neither happens within 180 days: if the FCHR does not make a reasonable cause determination, and the EEOC does not issue a Notice of Right to Sue, within 180 days after the complaint is filed, the lawsuit may be filed no later than 18 months after the complaint was filed.
Two practical points follow. First, an EEOC Notice of Right to Sue now expressly starts the FCRA one-year period, so employees can no longer assume they have more time on the state claim than on the federal one simply because the FCHR never acted. Second, the federal 90-day deadline after an EEOC notice still comes long before the one-year FCRA deadline, so anyone with both federal and state claims should plan around 90 days.
Some questions remain open. The statute still contains a separate provision, section 760.11(8)(c), that gives one year from the date the FCHR certifies it mailed a notice that it did not act within 180 days, and courts have not yet explained how that provision fits with the new 18-month rule. The amendment also does not say how it applies to complaints filed before July 1, 2026. Until courts answer those questions, the careful course is to file suit by the earliest date that could apply.
What if I missed a deadline?
Do not assume a claim is lost without having the dates reviewed. The charge-filing requirements are generally treated as rules that the employer must raise, not limits on the court's power. In Fort Bend County v. Davis, 587 U.S. 541 (2019), the Supreme Court held that Title VII's charge-filing requirement is not jurisdictional, which means an employer can forfeit the defense by not raising it in time. Doctrines such as equitable tolling may apply in limited circumstances. And some claims have no agency filing requirement at all, or have longer deadlines, depending on the law involved.
But these exceptions are narrow, and no one should rely on them. The far better course is to act early, when every option is still available. Delay can also limit recovery: under the FCRA, no back pay liability accrues from a date more than 2 years before the complaint was filed with the FCHR. See § 760.11(9), Fla. Stat.
Key deadlines and what to do now
45 days: federal employees, to contact an agency EEO counselor.
300 days: to file a charge with the EEOC for Title VII, ADA, or ADEA claims (treat this as the practical deadline for most Florida employees).
365 days: to file a complaint with the FCHR under the Florida Civil Rights Act.
90 days: to file a federal lawsuit after receiving an EEOC dismissal or Notice of Right to Sue.
35 days: to request an administrative hearing after an FCHR "no cause" finding.
1 year or 18 months: to file an FCRA lawsuit under the July 1, 2026 amendment, depending on whether a determination or right-to-sue notice issues within 180 days.
If you think you have been treated unfairly at work, these steps help protect your rights:
Write down the date of every important event: the termination, demotion, discipline, or denied promotion, and when you were told about it.
Keep copies of your offer letter, evaluations, discipline, emails or texts about the decision, and anything that shows how others were treated.
Save every letter from the EEOC or FCHR, along with the envelope or email showing when it arrived.
Do not wait for an internal grievance or appeal to finish before checking your agency deadlines; internal processes usually do not pause them.
If you also reported wrongdoing at work, other laws with different deadlines may apply. See our earlier post on Florida whistleblower law for public and private employees.
Every claim turns on its own dates and facts, and the right filing strategy depends on which laws apply. You can read more about the types of claims the firm handles on our discrimination law, wrongful termination, and age discrimination pages, and about our work with employees in Northeast Florida on our Jacksonville employment lawyer page.
Related: EEOC Charges | Discrimination Law | Florida Whistleblower Law After Gessner
Massey & Duffy, PLLC represents employees in discrimination and retaliation cases in state and federal courts throughout Florida, including Gainesville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Tallahassee, and Pensacola. To request a consultation, use our contact page or call (352) 505-8900.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. It describes the law as of the date it was published. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The law can change, and the outcome of any case depends on its specific facts. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
