No upfront cost Free, private case review Independent and attorney vetted
A room filled with rows of filing cabinets

Catastrophic injury claim timelines and deadlines

Almost every guide on this subject answers with a period. Very few tell you the thing that actually decides whether you are in time, which is the date that period is counted from. And fewer still mention that where the clock is paused because somebody could not act, the pause itself may have a ceiling. We publish no deadline figure on this page, deliberately.

Jump to a section
By Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor Last reviewed August 1, 2026 19 min read
The real question
From when
A period means nothing without the date it started running from.
The legal term
Accrual
The moment the law says a claim came into existence, not when you felt ready.
Sometimes paused
Tolling
For a child, or an adult who could not act. The clock stops rather than shortens.
Rarely mentioned
The cap
One state limits that pause to five years, and one year after capacity returns.

Key takeaways

  • Get your actual date in writing from an attorney. Not a period from a website, including this one.
  • The clock starts at accrual, which is a legal moment. Usually the crash, but not always, and that matters.
  • A child's clock and an adult's may run differently. Two people injured together can have different deadlines.
  • Where a pause applies, it may be capped. Incapacity does not always mean unlimited time, and the cap is the part nobody quotes.
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. We do not state a deadline for your claim anywhere on this page, deliberately. Limitation periods and their exceptions are set state by state, an incorrect date can end a claim permanently, and the only safe source for yours is an attorney licensed where it happened. We are a referral service and are paid by attorneys.

01 Why the number everyone quotes is the least useful one

Quick answer

A limitation period is a length, and a length tells you nothing without a starting point. The same period measured from the collision and measured from a date the law fixes somewhere else produces two different last days to file, and it is the second that governs. Which is why a period on its own is not information you can act on.

This page therefore does not tell you your deadline. It tells you which questions produce it, so that when you ask an attorney you get a date rather than a period. Published injury claim deadlines are written for nobody in particular, which is exactly the problem with relying on one.

Most published injury claim deadlines are stated as bare periods because a bare period is easy to write and applies to nobody in particular. It is also the part of the answer a competent attorney will supply in one sentence. What takes longer, and what almost nothing published explains, is the machinery that decides where the counting begins and whether it ever stopped.

Bottom line: ask for a date, in writing, and ask what it is calculated from.

Pile of printing papers
Accrual
A moment the law fixes.

02 Two years from what

Quick answer

The counting starts when the claim accrues, which is a legal event rather than a personal one. In an ordinary road collision that is usually the day of the crash. In several situations that most people would call ordinary, it is not.

The word to know is accrual, because it is the word that turns a period into a date.

  • Usually the day of the collision. Where the injury was obvious and the cause was obvious, accrual and the crash coincide.
  • Sometimes when the injury was discovered. Many states have a rule for harm that was not apparent at the time, though it does not exist everywhere and can carry its own shorter limit.
  • In a death case, potentially two different dates. One claim may run from the death and another from the injury that caused it, which is dealt with on our wrongful death pages.
  • Against a public body, from something else again. Notice requirements often run from the incident and expire in weeks rather than years.

Note what follows from the second item. If a condition was not diagnosed for months, the date the clock began may be arguable, and an arguable date is one you want an attorney to fix early rather than discover late.

03 When the clock does not run at all

Quick answer

Where the person entitled to sue could not realistically do so, many states suspend the running of the limitation period. The mechanism is called tolling, and the two commonest grounds are being under eighteen and lacking mental capacity.

This matters enormously on a site about catastrophic injury, because both grounds describe people who are frequently the claimants here. One state sets it out plainly.

Illustration, one state's statute
Periods of disability not counted
Minnesota Statutes section 541.15

The provision states that listed grounds of disability, existing at the time when a cause of action accrued or arising anytime during the period of limitation, shall suspend the running of the period of limitation until the same is removed. The grounds include that the plaintiff is within the age of 18 years and the plaintiff's insanity, a legal term rather than a clinical one. It adds a practical rule for combinations: if two or more disabilities shall coexist, the suspension shall continue until all are removed. Read the statute

Two consequences worth holding on to. A disability arising after accrual can still suspend the period, so a person who was capable at first and later was not may be protected. And where a parent and a child are hurt in the same crash, the adult's clock may run while the child's does not, which means one family can face two different deadlines from one collision.

Wooden card catalog drawers with labels
The ceiling
The sentence nobody quotes.

04 The ceiling on the pause

Quick answer

Consumer guidance routinely says the clock is paused during incapacity and stops there. The same statute that grants the pause frequently limits it, and for an adult with a serious brain injury that limit is the operative fact rather than a footnote.

Here is the rest of the sentence from the provision quoted above, which almost nothing written for the public includes.

Same statute, the part usually omitted
Not more than five years, nor more than one year after
Minnesota Statutes section 541.15

The suspension applies provided that such period, except in the case of infancy, shall not be extended for more than five years, nor in any case for more than one year after the disability ceases. Read that carefully. Infancy is carved out, so a child's position is different. For everybody else the pause is finite, and once capacity returns there is a further short window rather than a fresh full period. An adult who was unable to act for six years may not have six years added.

We are quoting one state and the drafting differs elsewhere, sometimes substantially. The point is not the numbers but the shape: if somebody tells you the deadline is suspended because of incapacity, the follow-up question is whether the suspension is capped, and by how much. A truck accident settlement timeline built on an assumption of unlimited time is built on the part of the rule that was not read.

05 More than one clock, and none of them aligned

Quick answer

A single crash can produce several deadlines running at different speeds from different dates. The limitation period is usually the longest of them, which is exactly why planning around it is a mistake.

This is covered in more depth elsewhere on the site, so what follows is the inventory rather than the argument. Our guide to how a truck accident claim works sets out the sequence in full.

  • Notice to a public body. Frequently weeks or a few months, and missing it can end that part of the claim entirely.
  • Record retention by a business. Measured in months for some documents. Nothing obliges anybody to warn you before they are destroyed.
  • Physical evidence. Vehicles get repaired or scrapped, and roadside scenes change within days.
  • The limitation period. Usually years, usually last, and therefore the worst of the four to organize around.

06 What a realistic timeline looks like

Quick answer

Longer than people expect and driven by medicine rather than by law. A serious claim generally cannot be valued until treatment has stabilized, and that is the real constraint on when anything resolves.

We give no month-by-month schedule because any figure we published would be invented. Anybody offering a truck accident settlement timeline as a fixed sequence of months is describing an average case, and catastrophic claims are the ones least like an average. What can be said honestly is what governs the pace.

  • Treatment sets the floor. Until the medical picture settles, nobody can price the future, and the future is most of a catastrophic claim.
  • Expert work adds months. Reconstruction, medical opinion and future cost analysis all take time and cannot be compressed usefully.
  • Filing does not mean trial. Most cases resolve without one, and filing is often a step toward settlement rather than away from it.
  • Speed usually costs money. The fastest resolutions are early offers, which are early precisely because the full picture is not yet visible.

If you want to know what these claims resolve for rather than how long they take, our guide to settlement amounts deals with value.

A pile of boxes and boxes sitting next to each other
First month
Regardless of any deadline.

07 What has to happen in the first month regardless

Quick answer

Nothing on this page about limitation periods should be read as permission to wait. The tasks that expire first are evidential, they expire in weeks, and none of them is affected by how long you have to file.

Our guide to what to do after a catastrophic accident covers this ground properly. The short version is that a generous filing deadline is not a reason to be relaxed.

  • Preservation, in writing. To anybody holding a vehicle, a recording or a record. This is the single most time-sensitive thing available to you.
  • Notice, if a public body may be involved. Because that deadline can be measured in weeks and is unforgiving.
  • Your own policy documents. Some coverages carry their own notice conditions quite separate from any limitation period.
  • A dated note of what happened. Written while it is fresh, because it will be read years later.

08 How to establish your own date

Quick answer

Five questions, put to an attorney licensed where it happened, which convert a published period into a date you can rely on. Ask for the answers in writing.

These are deliberately phrased as questions rather than as facts, because the facts belong to your state and your circumstances.

1

What is the actual last date to file

A calendar date, not a period. Ask for it in writing, and ask them to confirm it after they have the records rather than at the first call.

2

What date is that calculated from

The crash, a diagnosis, a death, or something else. This is the accrual question and it is where mistakes happen.

3

Does anything toll it, and is the toll capped

Relevant if the injured person is a child or was unable to act. Ask specifically whether the suspension has a limit, because in some states it does.

4

Is any public body involved, and what is the notice deadline

This is the deadline most likely to be missed, because it can fall due while somebody is still in hospital.

5

What expires before that, and what preserves it

Records, vehicles, footage. Ask what has already been sent and to whom, and get a copy.

A desk with a laptop on it in front of a window
Warning signs
Mostly false reassurance.

09 Red flags

Quick answer

Being told you have plenty of time, a period quoted without a date, nobody asking whether a public body was involved, and any assurance that incapacity means the clock has stopped indefinitely.

The first is the most dangerous because it sounds like competence and reassurance at once, and it is the commonest way a truck accident settlement timeline slips from months into years without anybody deciding that it should.

How time gets lost

Plenty of time. True of the filing deadline and false of everything else. Records and vehicles expire on their own schedule. A period with no date. Two years is not an answer. The date it runs from is the answer, and a firm should give you one. No question about public bodies. If nobody has asked, the shortest deadline in the case has not been identified. The clock has stopped. Where tolling applies it may still be capped, and treating a cap as if it did not exist is how a protected claimant runs out of time anyway.

A closing note on why this page carries no figures. Publishing a deadline that turns out to be wrong for a reader is the one error on a site like this that cannot be corrected afterwards, because the claim is simply gone. So we have set out the machinery and declined to state the numbers, and we would rather send you to somebody who will put a date in writing. A free case review costs nothing, and you can read how we match people with attorneys before deciding anything.

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 you a date, not a period

    And asks what it runs from. A firm that answers with two years has not looked at your facts yet.

  • Sends preservation requests promptly

    Because the deadlines that bite first are evidential, and they fall due long before anything has to be filed.

  • 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

Of every subject on this site, this is the one where a state difference is most likely to be fatal to a claim rather than merely inconvenient. The length of the period, the date it runs from, whether a discovery rule exists, which disabilities suspend it, whether that suspension is capped and at what, and how short a notice period applies where a public body is involved all vary by state. The single statute quoted on this page is one state's and is labeled as such. Nothing here is your deadline, and we have deliberately published no figure that a reader could mistake for one. The period applicable to you, known as the statute of limitations, is running now and only an attorney licensed in the right state can tell you when it ends.

Sources and authorities

One statute, quoted in two parts, published by a state's own Office of the Revisor.

Suspension of a limitation period

  • Minnesota Statutes section 541.15, Periods of Disability Not Counted. Source of the provision that listed grounds of disability existing when a cause of action accrued or arising during the period of limitation suspend the running of that period until removed, of the grounds including being within the age of 18 years and insanity, of the rule that where two or more disabilities coexist the suspension continues until all are removed, and of the limitation that except in the case of infancy the period shall not be extended for more than five years, nor in any case for more than one year after the disability ceases. Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes.

Why this statute, and why the cap. It is quoted because of its second half. There is no shortage of writing telling people that a limitation period pauses during minority or incapacity, and very little of it mentions that the pause may itself be limited. On a site read by people with brain injuries and by families acting for them, the cap is not a technicality: it is the difference between having time and having run out of it while believing otherwise.

What we did not use. Every general discussion of accrual and tolling we located was published by a law firm, a commercial legal publisher or an open encyclopedia. None of that is public information, so none of it has been quoted or paraphrased here, and where we describe general patterns we have written them ourselves and hedged them accordingly.

What we have deliberately not published. Any deadline figure. Not for any state, not as a national average, and not as a typical case. This is the only page on the site where publishing a wrong number could end a reader's claim outright rather than merely mislead them, so the machinery is explained and the numbers are left to the person who will be accountable for them.

Our editorial standards

How we keep this guide accurate and worth trusting.

01

No deadline figures at all

On this subject a wrong number ends a claim. We explain the mechanism and refuse to state the date.

02

We quote the half that gets omitted

The statute grants a pause and then caps it. Most guidance stops after the first clause.

03

Statute, not commentary

Everything published on accrual and tolling that we found was copyrighted. We used the state's own text instead.

04

We defer where others own it

Multiple clocks and evidence decay are covered elsewhere on this site, so here they are an inventory and a link.

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. Intake departments quote periods because periods are easy to say on a first call. The date is harder, it requires reading the file, and it is the only version of the answer that protects anybody. Michael is not a practicing attorney and does not give legal advice.

Connect on LinkedIn

Common questions, answered

General information, not legal advice. We do not state deadlines here. They are set state by state and only an attorney licensed where it happened can give you yours.

How long do I have to bring a claim?

We are not going to answer that with a number, and you should be wary of any website that does. The period varies by state and by the type of claim, but the more important variable is the date it runs from, which depends on your facts. Ask an attorney licensed where the crash happened for a calendar date, in writing, and ask what that date is calculated from. That is an answer you can rely on.

What does it mean that a claim accrues?

Accrual is the moment the law treats your claim as having come into existence, and it is the point the counting starts from. In an ordinary collision where the injury and its cause were both obvious, accrual is usually the day of the crash. Where an injury was not apparent at the time, some states start the clock when it was discovered or should have been. The distinction sounds technical and it decides deadlines.

My child was hurt. Is their deadline the same as mine?

Often not. Many states suspend the limitation period while the injured person is under eighteen, so a parent and a child hurt in the same crash can face two different deadlines. One state's statute lists being within the age of 18 years as a ground that suspends the running of the period until it is removed. That does not mean waiting is wise, because the evidence in the case decays on its own schedule regardless.

My relative is unconscious. Has the clock stopped?

Possibly suspended rather than stopped, and this is where care is needed. Many states suspend the period where the person entitled to sue lacks capacity. But the suspension is frequently capped: one state's provision says that except for infancy the period shall not be extended more than five years, nor in any case more than one year after the disability ceases. So incapacity does not necessarily mean unlimited time, and somebody should establish the position now.

Is there really a deadline shorter than the main one?

Frequently, and it is the one most often missed. Where a public body may be responsible, a transit authority or a municipal vehicle for instance, a formal notice is often required within weeks or a few months of the incident rather than years. It can fall due while the injured person is still in hospital. If there is any chance a public entity was involved, that question needs answering immediately rather than eventually.

If I have two years, why does everyone say to act now?

Because the filing deadline is the last of several clocks and the least urgent. Records that businesses must keep have retention periods measured in months. Vehicles get repaired or scrapped. Footage is overwritten. None of that waits for a limitation period, and none of it can be recovered once gone. The generous deadline is real; it just does not protect the evidence your claim will actually be built from.

How long will my case take to resolve?

Longer than most people expect, and the constraint is medical rather than legal. A serious claim cannot be valued honestly until treatment has stabilized, because most of the value sits in future costs and future capacity. Expert work adds months on top. We publish no month-by-month schedule because any figure we gave would be invented, and the honest answer is that speed and value usually pull against each other.

Can a deadline ever be extended after it passes?

Rarely, and it is not something to plan around. There are doctrines in some states addressing concealment, or a defendant's absence, or a claim brought in the wrong court in time. They are narrow, fact-specific and argued rather than assumed. If you think a deadline may have passed, that is a reason to speak to an attorney immediately rather than to conclude nothing can be done, but it is not a reason for anybody to be relaxed beforehand.

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.

Two years is not an answer. The date it runs from is.

One short, private form. No cost, no obligation, and no fee unless there is a recovery.

Private · Independent · Reviewed by our team

Get your free case review

Tell us what happened. Your request goes straight to our desk.