A statute of limitations is a law that sets a deadline for starting a legal case. Once the deadline passes, the claim is dead, however strong the evidence is and however badly you were wronged.
There is no single deadline. It depends on what kind of claim it is and which state you are in. Most personal injury claims run two or three years. Written contracts often get six. Defamation is frequently one year. Murder usually has no deadline at all.
The part people get wrong is not the length. It is the start date. The clock does not always begin on the day the harm happened, and a few situations stop it running or restart it from scratch.
What a Statute of Limitations Actually Does
It gives the defendant a defence, not the court a duty. If you file late and nobody objects, the case can technically continue. In practice the other side always objects, because it is the cheapest win available to them. One motion and the case is over.
The reasoning behind these laws is practical rather than moral. Evidence decays. Witnesses forget, move, and die. Receipts get thrown out, CCTV is overwritten, and skid marks wash away. A court asked to decide what happened twenty years ago is being asked to guess.
There is a second reason, which is that people are entitled to get on with their lives without an indefinite threat hanging over them. Cornell Law School keeps a reference entry on the doctrine that sets out the legal background.
When the Clock Starts
Three different start dates cover nearly every case.
The Date of the Act
The default. You were hit by a car on 3 March, so the clock started on 3 March. Most car accidents, assaults, falls and property damage claims work this way, because the injury and the event are the same moment.
The Discovery Rule
Some harms are invisible when they happen. A surgeon leaves a sponge inside a patient and it causes no symptoms for four years. An accountant files a return wrongly and nobody notices until an audit. Asbestos exposure produces a diagnosis decades later.
In those cases many states start the clock when you discovered the injury, or when a reasonable person in your position should have discovered it. That second half matters: ignoring symptoms for two years does not buy you two extra years.
A Continuing Wrong
Where the conduct repeats, such as ongoing harassment or a nuisance from a neighbouring property, each new incident can start its own clock. You may lose the right to sue over what happened three years ago and still have a live claim over last month.
Typical Deadlines by Claim Type
These are the common ranges in the United States. Your own state may sit outside them, so treat this as a guide to the shape of the rules rather than as your deadline.
- Personal injury: usually 2 or 3 years. A few states allow 1, a few allow 6.
- Medical malpractice: often 2 or 3 years, commonly measured from discovery, with a separate outer limit that applies regardless.
- Wrongful death: typically 2 years, and usually measured from the date of death rather than the date of the injury that caused it.
- Written contracts: often 4 to 6 years.
- Oral contracts: shorter, frequently 2 to 4 years, which is one practical reason to put agreements in writing.
- Property damage: commonly 2 to 6 years.
- Defamation: short, often 1 year.
- Debt collection: usually 3 to 6 years from the last activity on the account.
- Claims against a government body: the real trap. Many states require a written notice of claim within 60, 90 or 180 days, long before the ordinary deadline.
That last one catches people constantly. A fall on a council pavement or a crash with a city vehicle is not governed by the ordinary injury deadline. Miss the notice period and the claim is finished while you still think you have two years.
What Stops the Clock
Pausing the clock is called tolling. The common grounds are narrow and they are not discretionary. A judge cannot pause the clock because your reason for being late was a good one.
The Claimant Is a Minor
For a child, the clock in most states does not start until they turn 18. A person injured at 7 may still be able to bring a claim at 19.
Mental Incapacity
Where the injured person cannot manage their own affairs, many states pause the deadline until capacity returns or a representative is appointed.
The Defendant Left the State
Older statutes pause the clock for periods when the defendant is absent from the state or in hiding, on the basis that you cannot sue someone you cannot serve.
Fraudulent Concealment
If the defendant actively hid the wrong, the clock may not start until you could reasonably have found out. Hiding it is the test. Simply not volunteering the information is usually not enough.
The Deadline That Can Restart
Debt is the one area where the clock can go back to zero, and this catches people who were trying to do the right thing.
On an old debt, making a payment, agreeing a payment plan, or in some states acknowledging the debt in writing can restart the limitation period in full. A collector who offers a friendly settlement on a 7 year old account may be doing exactly that, because a time barred debt becomes collectable again the moment you engage with it financially.
The debt does not disappear when the deadline passes. What disappears is the collector’s ability to win a lawsuit over it. They can still ask you to pay, and they can still sue, hoping you will not raise the defence. If you do not turn up to defend, they get a judgment anyway. The CFPB has guidance on time barred debt that is worth reading before you reply to an old collection letter.
A Statute of Repose Is Not the Same Thing
These two get mixed up, and the difference decides cases.
A statute of limitations runs from when the claim arose or was discovered. A statute of repose runs from a fixed event, usually the date a product was sold or a building was completed, and it expires whether or not anybody has been injured yet.
So a state might allow 3 years from discovery for a construction defect, but also impose an absolute 10 year cut off from the date the work was finished. A defect found in year 11 has no claim, even though it was discovered the day before you called a lawyer. Repose periods are rarely tolled, and the usual exceptions do not apply to them.
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
The defendant files a motion to dismiss. In nearly every case it is granted, and the court never looks at whether you were actually wronged.
A few consequences follow that people do not expect:
- Your leverage to settle vanishes at the same moment. An insurer that was negotiating will stop returning calls the day after the deadline, because they no longer need to.
- A lawyer who missed it for you may be liable in negligence, but that is a second case with its own deadline and its own cost.
- A related claim with a longer deadline may still be alive. The injury claim can be out of time while a contract or insurance claim arising from the same facts is not.
Criminal Deadlines Work Differently
For crimes, the limitation period restricts the state rather than a private claimant, and the periods are tied to the seriousness of the offence.
- Minor offences commonly carry 1 to 2 years.
- Most felonies carry 3 to 6 years.
- Murder has no limitation period in any state.
- Many states have removed or extended the deadline for serious sexual offences, and several have opened temporary windows allowing old claims to be brought.
- The federal default for most offences is 5 years, with longer periods for specific crimes.
A criminal case running out of time does not necessarily end the civil claim. The two systems have separate deadlines and separate standards of proof, which is why a civil case can succeed where a prosecution was never brought.
How to Work Out Your Own Deadline
- Name the claim. Injury, contract, property, defamation and malpractice all have different periods, and one set of facts can produce more than one claim.
- Fix the state. Usually where the harm occurred, though contracts often specify. This decides everything else.
- Fix the start date and write down why you chose it. Date of the act, or date of discovery.
- Check whether a government body is involved. If so, find the notice deadline first, because it is measured in days.
- Check for tolling only if a real ground applies. Being busy, unwell or unaware of your rights is not one.
- Work backwards 3 months and treat that as your deadline. Lawyers need time to review records and file, and no firm will take a case on the final afternoon.
If the date is close and you are not sure, that is the point to speak to a lawyer rather than to research further. An initial call on a claim like this is free at most firms, and the only question that matters at that stage is whether you still have time.
Why Two Years Is Less Time Than It Sounds
The deadline is the date proceedings have to be started by, not the date you can start thinking about it. The work that has to happen first is slower than people expect.
On an ordinary injury claim, the treatment has to reach a point where a doctor can say what the long term effect will be, which can take a year on its own. Medical records have to be requested and chased. An insurer will usually be given a chance to settle before anything is filed, and that correspondence runs for months. If an expert is needed, they need the complete file and then time to write.
Firms also turn away cases that arrive late, and they are right to. A lawyer taking on a claim with six weeks left is accepting the risk of being blamed if something is missed. Many will simply decline, which means the search for a lawyer can itself consume the time you had.
Two years of calendar time is therefore closer to twelve useful months. Treat the real deadline as the one a few months before the legal one.
What People Get Wrong About the Deadline
“I reported it to the police, so the clock has stopped”
It has not. A police report, an insurance claim, a complaint to a regulator and a letter to the other side are all useful, and none of them starts or pauses a court deadline. Only filing the case does that.
“The insurer is still negotiating, so I have time”
Negotiation does not extend anything. An adjuster who keeps a file friendly and unresolved until the deadline has passed has done nothing improper and has won outright. Any extension has to be agreed in writing, and a formal tolling agreement is a specific document, not a reassuring phone call.
“I did not know I could sue”
Not knowing the law is never a ground for extending a deadline. Not knowing you were injured can be, under the discovery rule, but that is a different point and it has to be reasonable.
“It happened online, so the rules are different”
They are not, although which state applies may be harder to work out. Defamation is the one to watch here because the period is short, often a year, and most states run it from first publication rather than from the day you found the post.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a statute of limitations?
A law that sets the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings can be started. Once it expires the claim cannot be enforced in court, regardless of how strong the evidence is.
How long is the statute of limitations?
It depends on the claim and the state. Personal injury is commonly 2 or 3 years, written contracts 4 to 6, defamation often 1, and debt collection usually 3 to 6 years from the last activity on the account.
When does the clock start running?
Usually on the date of the act that caused the harm. Where the injury could not reasonably have been noticed at the time, many states start it when you discovered it, or when you should have.
What is the difference between a statute of limitations and a statute of repose?
A limitation period runs from when the claim arose or was discovered. A repose period runs from a fixed event such as the sale of a product or completion of a building, and it expires even if nobody has been injured yet.
Can a statute of limitations be paused?
Yes, on narrow grounds. The usual ones are that the claimant was a minor or lacked mental capacity, that the defendant left the state, or that the defendant actively concealed the wrong.
Can an old debt restart the clock?
Yes. Making a payment, agreeing a plan, or in some states acknowledging the debt in writing can restart the full limitation period on a debt that was already time barred.
What happens if I file after the deadline?
The defendant applies to dismiss and the court almost always grants it without examining the merits. Any settlement leverage you had disappears at the same time.
Is there a statute of limitations on murder?
No. No US state imposes a deadline for murder charges. Many states have also removed or extended the deadline for serious sexual offences.
Do claims against the government have the same deadline?
No, and this is the most common way claims are lost. Many states require a written notice of claim within 60, 90 or 180 days of the incident, well before the ordinary limitation period expires.
Does a criminal case expiring stop me suing?
No. Criminal and civil deadlines are separate and the standard of proof is different, which is why a civil claim can succeed where no prosecution was ever brought.
The deadline is the one part of a claim you cannot argue your way out of later, so it is worth settling early. Write down the date you think the clock started and the reason, then check it against your own state’s rules before you do anything else.
More from us on bringing a claim: dog bite injury claims and industrial and plant explosion cases.
This is general information about US law, not legal advice. Limitation periods, start dates and notice requirements differ by state and by claim, so check with a lawyer licensed where the harm occurred.
