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Injury statute of limitations by state

You came here for a table of fifty numbers. We have not published one, and this page explains why that format is the least useful document in this field. Instead there are three statutes quoted in full, with links, and every one of them proves the point: the period is the easy part.

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By Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor Last reviewed August 1, 2026 19 min read
What is here
Three
Statutes verified against primary sources and quoted with their citations.
What is not
A table
Forty seven states we did not verify are not represented by a number.
The pattern
Qualified
Each of the three carries exceptions, cross-references or an accrual rule.
The real answer
A date
Comes from an attorney reading your facts, not from any period on a page.

Key takeaways

  • Read the provision, not a summary of it. Each of the three quoted below says more than a number could carry.
  • The period usually runs from accrual. One of these statutes says so in terms, and accrual is not always the crash.
  • Exceptions are written into the same section. One statute here cross-references four separate provisions in one line.
  • Claims against public bodies are different. Notice deadlines there are frequently measured in weeks.
Editorial content, not legal advice

This guide is written and reviewed by our editorial team to be accurate and current. It is general information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Nothing here is your deadline. Every period quoted is attributed to a named statute of a named state, dated to the version we read, and linked so you can check it, and a statutory period is still not a claimant's date because accrual and any suspension of the clock intervene. Confirm your own position with an attorney licensed where it happened. We are a referral service and are paid by attorneys.

01 Why there is no table on this page

Quick answer

Because we verified three states against their own published codes and did not verify the other forty-seven. Publishing fifty numbers, forty-seven of which we had copied from somewhere else, would be exactly the artifact this page argues against.

There is a stronger reason as well. Our guide to settlement amounts declines to publish figures it cannot source, and on the subject of deadlines the stakes are higher still: a wrong number here does not merely mislead somebody, it can end their claim. So the rule we apply is that a period appears on this page only with its statute, its date, and a link.

What follows is therefore three provisions rather than fifty rows. They were chosen because each one shows a different way a bare number goes wrong. Anybody searching for a personal injury statute of limitations will find plenty of tables elsewhere, and the useful thing this page can add is the reason not to trust them.

Bottom line: a period with no citation cannot be checked. A period with a citation can, so ask for one.

02 What a table of periods hides

Quick answer

Four things, every one of which can change the answer completely: what the period runs from, which claims it covers, what exceptions the same section carries, and whether the clock was ever running at all.

A row in a table gives you a state and a number. Any published personal injury statute of limitations reduced to that form has necessarily dropped the following.

  • The starting point. Statutes commonly run from accrual rather than from the incident, and accrual is a legal event that may fall later.
  • Which claim it applies to. Injury, death, property damage and professional negligence frequently have different periods inside one state.
  • The exceptions in the same breath. Limitation sections routinely begin with the words except as provided by, followed by a list.
  • Whether the clock ran. Minority and incapacity can suspend it, and that suspension may itself be capped.

The machinery behind those last two is set out on our guide to how a claim works. What this page adds is the evidence, in the statutes' own words, that the qualifications are not hypothetical.

Lighter staircase with railings
One state
Two years, one sentence.

03 One state: two years, injury and death together

Quick answer

The California provision is unusually short, and its brevity is instructive. It states a two year period and folds injury and death into the same sentence, which is convenient for a table and also means one sentence is doing every job at once, including the ones it does not mention.

Here it is complete, as the state legislature displays it.

California, current display of the code
Two years, for injury or for death
California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1

The section reads, in its entirety: Within two years: An action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. Note what it does not say. It does not tell you when the two years begin, it does not distinguish the injured person's claim from a claim brought after a death, and it says nothing about the many circumstances in which the period is affected by other provisions. A table row reading two years is a fair summary of this sentence and still not an answer. Read the section

This is the best case for the table format, because the provision really is a single period. Even so, a claimant reading two years learns nothing about which day it started.

04 Another: three years, and four exceptions

Quick answer

The New York provision states three years for personal injury and then, in the same paragraph, carves out four separate sections by number. Anybody whose claim falls into one of those four has been given the wrong answer by every table that lists this state as three years.

The relevant paragraph is short and the exceptions are the point.

New York, 2024 compilation
Three years, except as provided in four numbered sections
New York Civil Practice Law and Rules section 214

The section provides that the following actions must be commenced within three years, and at paragraph 5 lists an action to recover damages for a personal injury except as provided in sections 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215. Four cross-references in a single line, each pointing at a provision that may displace the three years entirely. The same section also sets separate treatment for property damage and for certain professional negligence, so even within this one statute the answer depends on what kind of claim you have. Read the section

We have dated this to the 2024 compilation we read. That matters because a limitation provision is precisely the kind of section legislatures amend, and a period quoted without a date is a period nobody can rely on.

White spiral staircase in close up photography
The starting gun
Accrual, not impact.

05 A third: two years from accrual, not from the crash

Quick answer

Texas states two years and then says explicitly what those two years run from. It is the clearest available demonstration that the period and the deadline are different things, because the statute itself distinguishes them.

Read the words after the number, which are the ones a table cannot carry.

Texas, 2022 compilation
Not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003

Subsection (a) provides that Except as provided by Sections 16.010, 16.0031, and 16.0045, a person must bring suit for trespass for injury to the estate or to the property of another, conversion of personal property, taking or detaining the personal property of another, personal injury, forcible entry and detainer, and forcible detainer not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. Subsection (b) then handles death separately: A person must bring suit not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues in an action for injury resulting in death. The cause of action accrues on the death of the injured person. Read the section

Three things in one section. The period runs from accrual and not from the collision. Death has its own accrual rule, fixed at the date of death rather than the date of injury. And three separate provisions are carved out at the start. A currency caution as well: this section has been the subject of repeated amendment bills, several during the 2025 legislative session, and we have not verified whether any were enacted. We have quoted the 2022 compilation we read and dated it accordingly.

06 Claims against public bodies are different

Quick answer

Where a city bus, a municipal truck or a state vehicle was involved, a formal notice is frequently required long before any limitation period expires, sometimes within weeks. It is the deadline most often missed and it appears on no table of limitation periods.

This is worth separating out because the two deadlines are unrelated and the shorter one is unforgiving. It is also the clearest reason that any summary of the statute of limitations by state is incomplete on its own terms, because notice requirements sit in an entirely different part of the code.

  • It is a notice, not a lawsuit. A formal document telling the public body a claim is coming, in the form and to the office the statute specifies.
  • The period is short. Frequently weeks or a few months, and it can fall due while the injured person is still in hospital.
  • Missing it can end that part of the claim. Even where the general limitation period has years left to run.
  • Establish it in week one. If any vehicle involved might have been publicly owned, that question needs answering immediately.

Whether a particular claimant may bring the claim at all is a separate question again, dealt with on our guide to who can file a claim.

White wooden staircase with white wooden railings
Finding it
Free, and about ten minutes.

07 How to find the provision that applies to you

Quick answer

Every state publishes its own code online for free. Finding the limitation section takes a few minutes, and reading it will tell you more than any summary, including this one.

This is worth doing even if an attorney is going to give you the answer, because it lets you understand the answer when it comes.

  • Search for the state name with the words legislature and code. You want the state's own site rather than a commercial summary.
  • Look for limitations of actions. Usually a chapter of its own, near the start of the civil procedure code.
  • Read the whole section, including the first clause. The words except as provided by are where the exceptions live.
  • Note the date of the version you are reading. Compilations lag, and limitation sections get amended.

Doing that for your own state is the most useful ten minutes available to somebody researching a personal injury statute of limitations, and it costs nothing.

08 What to do this week

Quick answer

Five things, and the first two matter considerably more than knowing any period at all, because they protect material that expires on its own schedule regardless of how long you have left to file. Read them in order rather than picking.

Nothing on this page about periods should be read as permission to wait.

1

Get a preservation request sent

To anybody holding a vehicle, a recording or a record. Retention periods run in months and nobody is obliged to warn you before material is destroyed.

2

Establish whether a public body may be involved

Because the notice deadline is short, unforgiving, and entirely separate from the limitation period.

3

Ask an attorney for a calendar date

Not a period. A date, in writing, together with what it is calculated from. That last part is the accrual question.

4

Say if the injured person is a child or lacks capacity

It may suspend the clock, and any suspension may itself be limited, so it needs raising rather than assuming.

5

Read your own state's section yourself

Ten minutes, free, and it will let you follow the advice you are given instead of taking it on trust.

White concrete staircase with stainless steel railings
Warning signs
Numbers with no source.

09 Red flags

Quick answer

A table with no citations, a period quoted without a date, an assurance that you have plenty of time, and nobody asking whether a public body was involved or whether the injured person can act for themselves.

The first is so common that most readers have never seen the alternative. A personal injury statute of limitations presented without its source is the norm in this field rather than the exception.

How a deadline gets missed

A fifty row table with no sources. If no row names a statute, nothing on it can be checked, and limitation sections change. A period with no date. The version matters. A figure copied from a compilation years old may already be wrong. Plenty of time. True of the filing deadline and false of the evidence, which expires on a separate and much shorter schedule. No question about public bodies. That is the shortest deadline in most cases and it is invisible on every limitation table. Nobody asked about capacity or age. Both can change whether the clock ran at all, and one family can face two different deadlines from one crash.

A closing word on the choice made here. Publishing three verified statutes instead of fifty unverified numbers means this page answers a narrower question than its title suggests, and we would rather be narrow than wrong on a subject where being wrong is final. If you want the date that applies to you, that comes from an attorney reading your facts. You can read how we match people with attorneys, and a free case review costs nothing.

How we vet every lawyer

This is a standard rather than an ordering. An attorney either clears it or does not.

  • Active, discipline-free license

    Verified good standing with the state bar, with no unresolved discipline on record. You can check this yourself too.

  • Gives a date, not a period

    And says what it is calculated from. A firm answering with two years has not yet looked at your facts.

  • Asks about public bodies immediately

    Because that notice deadline is the shortest one in the case and the easiest to lose.

  • Clear contingency terms

    Fees and case costs put in writing up front, so you know exactly how it works before signing.

Tell us what happened and we will only match you when a case genuinely fits.

Help in all 50 states

MVA Lawyer Network is a nationwide guide. Wherever it happened, we can connect you with an independent attorney licensed in that state.

Northeast Southeast Midwest Southwest West Coast Mountain West Gulf States Alaska and Hawaii

This is the page where a state difference is most likely to be fatal rather than merely inconvenient, which is why only three states appear on it and each with its statute and its date. Beyond the length of the period, states differ on what event starts it, whether a discovery rule exists and how narrow it is, which claim types are carved out, which disabilities suspend the clock and whether that suspension is capped, how short a notice period applies where a public body may be responsible, and whether a claim must be presented administratively before suit. Three of the fifty are quoted here. The other forty-seven are not represented by a number on this page, deliberately, and the period applicable to you, known as the statute of limitations, is running now.

Sources and authorities

Three statutes, each quoted from the version named and linked. State codes are public law.

Limitation periods for injury actions

  • California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, as currently displayed by the California Legislature. Quoted in full: within two years, an action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. California Legislature.
  • New York Civil Practice Law and Rules section 214, from a 2024 compilation. Source of the requirement that the listed actions be commenced within three years, and of paragraph 5, an action to recover damages for a personal injury except as provided in sections 214-b, 214-c, 214-i and 215. New York CPLR 214.
  • Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code section 16.003, from a 2022 compilation. Source of subsection (a), requiring suit for the listed matters including personal injury not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, except as provided by three named sections, and of subsection (b) on death, where the cause of action accrues on the death of the injured person. This section has been the subject of repeated amendment bills, several in the 2025 session, whose fate we did not verify. Texas CPRC 16.003.

Why three and not fifty, stated plainly. We verified three states against published statutory text. We did not verify the other forty-seven, and publishing numbers for them copied out of somebody else's table would have been the precise thing this page tells readers not to trust. The title promises more than the page delivers, and we would rather acknowledge that than fill the gap with material we have not read. If the full table is built later, every row needs its own citation, its own date and its own link.

On dating each quotation separately. The California text is the legislature's current display. The New York text is from a 2024 compilation and the Texas text from a 2022 compilation, and both are labeled as such wherever they appear. Limitation provisions are amended relatively often, which is exactly why an undated period is worthless, and why the Texas amendment activity is disclosed rather than omitted.

What none of this gives you. A date. A statutory period is a length, and the length only becomes a deadline once you know the day it started running from and whether anything suspended it. That is why every section here points at the same conclusion: get the date from an attorney licensed where it happened, in writing, with the calculation shown.

Our editorial standards

How we keep this guide accurate and worth trusting.

01

Only what we verified

Three states appear because three were checked against their own code. Forty-seven were not, and are not represented.

02

Every period is dated

Current display, 2024 compilation, 2022 compilation. An undated limitation period cannot be relied on.

03

We disclose amendment activity

One of the three has been the subject of repeated bills. We say so rather than presenting the text as settled.

04

We admit the title overpromises

The page is narrower than its name. Saying so is better than filling the gap with unread material.

Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor
Michael Mangione Verified editor
Legal Research Editor · Founder, The Mangione Group, Inc.

MVA Lawyer Network is edited by Michael Mangione, who has spent more than twelve years working inside contingency-based law firms, building intake departments, designing qualification frameworks, and studying how claims are screened and pursued from the first call through resolution. The fifty state deadline table is the most copied page in injury marketing and almost nobody who publishes one has read the statutes in it. Michael is not a practicing attorney and does not give legal advice.

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Common questions, answered

General information, not legal advice. Nothing here is your deadline, and periods vary by state and by claim type.

What is the deadline to file an injury claim in my state?

We have not published a figure for every state, and we would treat any site that has with caution unless each row names its statute. Three states are quoted on this page with citations and links. For your own, search for your state's legislature and its code, find the chapter on limitations of actions, and read the whole section. Then ask an attorney for a calendar date rather than a period.

Why not just publish a table of all fifty?

Because we verified three and not forty-seven, and copying the rest out of someone else's table is how errors propagate. On this subject a wrong number does not merely mislead, it can end a claim. There is a second reason too: a row gives a state and a number, and every statute quoted here shows that the words around the number are what decide the answer.

Does the clock start on the day of the crash?

Often, but the statutes generally do not say that. Texas section 16.003 requires suit not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues, which is a legal event rather than the collision, and it fixes a different accrual rule for death, on the date of death. Where an injury was not apparent at the time, some states start the clock later. This is the question a table cannot answer.

Does the same period apply to every kind of claim?

No, and that is one of the clearest problems with a single figure per state. New York's section states three years for personal injury and then excepts four other provisions in the same line, alongside separate treatment for property damage and certain professional negligence. So within one state the answer depends on what kind of claim it is, and a table listing that state as three years is wrong for anybody inside an exception.

Is there a shorter deadline I might not know about?

Yes, and it appears on no limitation table. Where a public body may be responsible, a city bus or a municipal vehicle for instance, a formal notice is frequently required within weeks or a few months of the incident. Missing it can end that part of the claim even with years left on the general period. If any vehicle involved might have been publicly owned, establish that in the first week.

My relative is a child. Is their deadline different?

Frequently, because many states suspend the running of the period while an injured person is under eighteen. That means a parent and a child hurt in the same crash can face two different deadlines. Where an adult lacks capacity, a suspension may also apply, and in some states that suspension is itself capped. None of it is visible on a table of periods, so raise it with an attorney directly.

How do I read a statute if I am not a lawyer?

More easily than you would expect for this particular kind of section. Find the state's own code site, look for limitations of actions, and read from the first word rather than skipping to the number. The phrase except as provided by tells you exceptions exist and names them. The phrase after the cause of action accrues tells you the clock is not tied to the incident. Both are the useful part.

The period in my state has probably passed. Is it over?

Speak to an attorney before concluding that, and do it promptly rather than waiting further. Accrual may have been later than you assume, an exception may apply to your claim type, or the clock may have been suspended. None of that is something to rely on in advance, and none of it is a reason to delay, but it is a reason to get an answer from somebody who can read your facts against the actual provision.

Do I have to pay anything up front?

Injury firms generally work on a contingency basis, meaning the fee is a percentage of what is recovered set out in the written agreement and there is nothing to pay up front. Case costs, meaning experts and records and filing fees, are a separate item from the fee, and the agreement should say plainly who carries them and what happens to them if the case does not succeed.

Is what I tell you private?

Yes. What you share in a case review is kept private and is used only to match you with an attorney who fits your situation. One distinction is worth understanding: true legal confidentiality, called attorney-client privilege, only attaches once you actually have an attorney-client relationship with a lawyer. Submitting a form to a referral service is not the same thing. If that matters to you, raise it directly with the attorney.

What does it cost to use MVA Lawyer Network?

Nothing. We are a free, independent referral service, not a law firm, and we do not give legal advice. Requesting a case review costs you nothing and puts you under no obligation. When a situation fits, we connect you with an independent attorney who reviews it directly, and we may be paid a referral fee by that attorney. That fee does not add anything on top of their percentage.

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