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Statute of limitations for personal injury, by state (2026)

Filing deadlines for personal injury lawsuits in all 50 states and DC, the discovery rule, tolling exceptions, and the short-fuse exceptions that catch unrepresented plaintiffs. Cited to state code, not summarized from memory.

Published May 17, 2026 , 11 min read

The statute of limitations is the first and most unforgiving rule in personal-injury practice. Miss it by one day, and a meritorious case becomes worthless. Yet it is the rule that unrepresented plaintiffs most often misunderstand, in part because the deadline that matters depends on the defendant, the injury type, and the jurisdiction.

This guide covers the general personal-injury SOL by state and then walks through the four common ways the clock gets tolled, accelerated, or interrupted.

The basic deadline by state

Every state sets its own filing deadline. The personal-injury SOL controls the time within which a lawsuit must be filed in court. Filing a claim with an insurance carrier does not stop the SOL clock. Settlement negotiations do not stop the clock. Only filing a properly-served lawsuit stops the clock.

The general personal-injury SOL by state (verified against state code, see the state pages on this site for each citation):

One year: Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee
Two years: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota (general), Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia
Three years: Arkansas, District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin
Four years: Florida (changed from four to two years for cases accruing after March 24, 2023), Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming
Five years: Missouri
Six years: Maine, Minnesota (assault and battery only), North Dakota

Florida is the recent change worth flagging. House Bill 837 reduced the SOL for negligence-based personal-injury claims accruing after March 24, 2023 from four years to two years. Cases that accrued before that date keep the four-year deadline. Cases accruing after, get two years.

Four ways the clock gets modified

1. The discovery rule

The clock typically starts on the date the injury occurred. In most car-accident cases, that is the date of the crash. The discovery rule is an exception: it starts the clock on the date the plaintiff discovered or, through reasonable diligence, should have discovered the injury.

The discovery rule is used most often in:

Medical malpractice cases where the negligent act and the resulting injury are temporally separated (a misread x-ray that goes undiscovered until symptoms emerge years later)
Toxic exposure cases where the disease manifests years after exposure (asbestos mesothelioma, environmental contamination)
Product liability cases where a latent defect is not discovered until failure

The discovery rule rarely applies in motor-vehicle cases. If your back hurts the day after a crash, the clock started on the day of the crash even if the disc herniation was not radiologically confirmed until weeks later. Courts treat the symptoms as the discovery, not the radiologist’s report.

2. Tolling for minority

If the plaintiff was a minor at the time of injury, most states pause the SOL until the minor reaches the age of majority (typically 18). The clock then runs for the full SOL period from the date of majority. A 12-year-old injured in a state with a three-year SOL has until age 21 to file.

Some states cap the total toll. California Civil Procedure Code section 352, for example, tolls the SOL during minority but only up to age 18 plus the standard two-year SOL, ending at age 20. Other states allow the full statutory tolling.

3. Tolling for mental incapacity

Most states pause the clock during periods of legal mental incapacity. The standard is high: not merely depressed or grieving, but unable to understand the nature of legal rights. The tolling ends when the incapacity ends.

This applies most often in cases involving severe traumatic brain injury, where the plaintiff was rendered unable to manage their own affairs for a period of time after the injury.

4. Fraudulent concealment

If the defendant actively concealed the cause of the injury, most states pause the clock until the concealment is discovered or could reasonably have been discovered. This applies in product liability cases where the manufacturer hid evidence of a defect, in medical malpractice cases where the doctor altered records, and in occasional fraud-adjacent cases.

The plaintiff must prove concealment by clear and convincing evidence. This is a high bar.

The shorter deadlines that catch unrepresented plaintiffs

The general PI SOL is the headline number. Three other deadlines kill more cases than the SOL itself.

Government tort claim notice deadlines

When the at-fault party is a state or local government entity, you must file a written notice of claim before suing. The notice deadline is shorter than the SOL, typically 60 to 180 days from the date of injury. Examples:

California: 6 months for state agency, 6 months for municipal (Cal. Gov. Code section 911.2)
New York: 90 days (Gen. Mun. Law section 50-e)
Washington: 60 days plus a 60-day waiting period before suit (Rev. Code section 4.96.020)
Mississippi: 90 days (Miss. Code section 11-46-11)
Florida: 3 years for state, but 180 days notice required to specific agencies (Fla. Stat. section 768.28)

Missing the notice deadline bars the claim even if the general SOL has not expired. See the government-claim-notice tool on this site for the deadline in every state.

Insurance contract deadlines

Most personal auto-insurance policies impose a one-year contractual deadline for uninsured-motorist and underinsured-motorist claims. This is a contract-of-adhesion clause that runs from the date of loss, regardless of the state SOL. Treat the one-year contractual deadline as the operative deadline in UM/UIM matters.

Discovery and conditions precedent

Some states have additional procedural prerequisites that, if not satisfied within the SOL, bar the claim. Medical-malpractice cases in particular often require:

A pre-suit notice of intent to sue (Florida, Georgia, others)
An affidavit or certificate of merit from a qualified expert (most states)
A pre-suit panel review or arbitration (some states)

If the SOL is approaching and the plaintiff has not yet satisfied the conditions precedent, the case may be barred.

Practical implications

For the unrepresented plaintiff:

Count days, not months. A two-year SOL on a March 15, 2025 injury runs to March 15, 2027 at midnight. Day 731 is too late.
File the lawsuit. Do not file an insurance claim and assume that is the same thing. It is not. Only filing in court stops the clock.
Check the government-claim-notice deadline first. If the at-fault party might be a government employee, on duty, or in a government vehicle, the 60-180 day notice deadline kicks in immediately.
For UM/UIM claims, check your auto policy’s contractual deadline. Usually one year. Treat it as the operative deadline.
Get the calculation in writing from a lawyer if the case is close to deadline. Most lawyers offer free SOL analysis on PI cases. Calling a lawyer 10 days before the deadline is dangerous; calling 60 days before is fine.

The SOL countdown tool on this site applies these rules to your state and your injury date. Treat it as a starting point, not a substitute for verifying the deadline against the actual state code citation.

Frequently asked questions

What is the statute of limitations for personal injury?

The statute of limitations is a state-specific deadline for filing a personal-injury lawsuit. It typically runs from the date the injury accrued (date of accident in most cases, date of discovery in others). The general personal-injury SOL ranges from one year (Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee) to six years (Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota). Two and three years are the most common.

What happens if I miss the statute of limitations?

The lawsuit is barred. The court will dismiss the case on a motion by the defendant. There is no discretion to extend, with very narrow exceptions for legal incapacity, fraudulent concealment, and the discovery rule. Insurance settlements can still be negotiated after the SOL passes in theory, but in practice the carrier has zero settlement leverage to offer once the lawsuit is time-barred.

Does the SOL clock pause if I am still in treatment?

No, in most states. The SOL clock runs from the date the injury accrued, regardless of treatment duration. The discovery rule extends accrual only when the plaintiff did not know and could not reasonably have known of the injury, which is a narrow exception used primarily in medical-malpractice and toxic-exposure cases, not in motor-vehicle injuries.

What is the difference between general PI SOL and the tort claims act notice deadline?

Two completely separate deadlines. The general PI SOL governs lawsuits against private parties. The tort claims act notice deadline governs the written notice you must file with a government entity before suing it. The notice deadline is typically 90 to 180 days from the injury, much shorter than the general SOL. Both deadlines must be met if the defendant is a government entity. Missing the notice deadline bars the claim even if the SOL has not yet expired.

Are SOLs different for minors?

Yes. Most states toll the SOL for plaintiffs who are minors at the time of injury, so the clock does not start until the minor reaches the age of majority (18 in most states). Some states cap the total toll, others do not. Medical-malpractice cases involving minors have additional, often stricter, SOL rules in most states.