A statute of limitations is the legal deadline for filing a lawsuit or bringing criminal charges after an event occurs. Miss it and a court will almost always refuse to hear the case, no matter how strong the evidence. Civil deadlines usually run between one and ten years depending on the type of claim; criminal deadlines range from one year for minor offenses to no limit at all for the most serious crimes. The hard part is rarely the number itself. It’s figuring out when the clock started, what might have paused it, and whether a different kind of deadline has already quietly cut off the claim.
When the Clock Starts
A claim’s deadline begins running at “accrual,” the moment the claim becomes ripe. The U.S. Supreme Court has described accrual as the point when a plaintiff has “a complete and present cause of action.”1Legal Information Institute. Accrue In most situations that means the day the injury or damage happens. If someone rear-ends your car on March 1, the clock starts March 1, even if the back pain doesn’t show up until a week later.
The discovery rule is the main exception. It delays accrual until the injured person discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, both the injury and its likely cause. The rule matters most when harm isn’t immediately visible: a surgeon leaves a sponge inside a patient and symptoms don’t surface for two years, or a chemical leaches into a neighborhood’s water supply and residents have no reason to suspect contamination for a decade. Starting the clock at the date of the original act in those cases would effectively deny any remedy.
There is a tradeoff. Once you notice something is wrong, you’re expected to investigate. If a reasonable person in your position would have connected the dots sooner, a court may decide the clock started at that earlier point.
Common Deadlines for Civil Claims
Most civil statutes of limitations fall somewhere between one and ten years depending on the type of claim. The ranges below reflect what you’ll see across most states.
- Personal injury claims generally run two to three years from the date of injury. This covers car accidents, slip-and-fall cases, and most negligence claims.
- Written contract claims run three to six years in most states, with a few going as high as ten. The longer window reflects the clearer proof a written agreement provides.
- Oral contract claims are shorter, typically two to four years, on the theory that memories of verbal promises fade quickly.
- Property damage claims run two to five years from the date the damage occurred.
For federal civil claims created by statutes enacted after 1990, a default four-year deadline applies unless the specific law says otherwise.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1658 – Limitation of Actions That catches a lot of claims that don’t have their own deadline written into the statute.
Criminal Deadlines
Criminal cases run on their own clocks, and the stakes sit on the prosecutor’s side: wait too long and the power to bring charges disappears. Under federal law, the general rule is five years for any non-capital offense.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Offenses Not Capital Specific federal crimes carry their own deadlines that override this default. Tax evasion has a six-year window, and certain fraud offenses stretch to ten.
At the state level, misdemeanor deadlines typically run one to three years, and general felony deadlines run three to seven. The most serious crimes get no deadline at all. Federal law allows prosecution for any offense punishable by death “at any time without limitation.”4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3281 – Capital Offenses Every state follows a similar approach for murder, and many extend the no-limit rule to other violent crimes and serious sex offenses.
Shorter Deadlines for Claims Against the Government
Suing a government entity almost always means shorter deadlines and extra procedural steps. This is where people most often lose their right to a claim without realizing it.
Federal Tort Claims
Someone injured by a federal employee acting on the job cannot go straight to court. They must first file a written administrative claim with the responsible federal agency within two years of accrual.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States The agency then has six months to respond. If the agency denies the claim or doesn’t act within six months, the claimant has another six months from the date of the denial letter to file a lawsuit.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite Skip the administrative step and the court has no authority to hear the case.
Employment Discrimination
Workplace discrimination claims under federal law carry some of the shortest filing windows anywhere. If you believe you were discriminated against based on race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, or age, you generally have 180 days from the discriminatory act to file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That window extends to 300 days if your state has its own anti-discrimination agency enforcing a similar law. Federal employees face an even tighter timeline: 45 days to contact an agency EEO counselor.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
Filing an internal grievance or going through your company’s HR process does not pause these clocks. The EEOC deadline keeps running regardless of whatever internal complaint process your employer offers.
State and Local Government Claims
Most states require a formal notice of claim before you can sue a state or local government agency, and those notice deadlines are often measured in days, not years. Periods of 30 to 180 days are common. Missing the notice deadline usually kills the lawsuit entirely. If you have a potential claim against any level of government, treat the deadline as the most urgent item on your list.
What Pauses the Clock
“Tolling” is the legal term for pausing the statute of limitations. When a tolling event applies, the clock freezes, then picks up where it left off once the event ends. Courts recognize several categories.
Legal Incapacity
If the person with the claim is a minor or has been found mentally incompetent, the clock is paused until they reach adulthood or regain capacity. The logic is straightforward: someone who lacks the legal ability to manage their own affairs shouldn’t be penalized for failing to file. Once the disability ends, the person gets the remainder of the original limitations period to bring their claim.
Active Military Service
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act excludes the entire period of active duty from any statute of limitations calculation. The statute says the period of military service “may not be included in computing any period limited by law” for bringing an action “by or against the servicemember.” The servicemember does not need to prove that deployment interfered with their ability to file. The Supreme Court has called this protection “unambiguous, unequivocal, and unlimited.” One carve-out: the tolling does not apply to federal tax matters.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3936 – Statute of Limitations
Fraudulent Concealment
If the defendant actively hid the wrongdoing, most courts will toll the limitations period until the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the concealment. This comes up when a company buries evidence of a defective product or a business partner covers up embezzlement. The plaintiff typically must show the defendant took affirmative steps to conceal the facts and that the plaintiff exercised reasonable diligence despite those efforts.
Equitable Tolling
Courts occasionally pause the clock outside the situations specifically listed in a statute, under a doctrine called equitable tolling. The bar is high. The Supreme Court has held that a party seeking equitable tolling must show both that they pursued their rights diligently and that some extraordinary circumstance beyond their control prevented them from filing on time. A lawyer’s serious misconduct might qualify. Simple ignorance of the deadline will not.
Statutes of Repose: The Hard Cutoff
A statute of repose looks similar to a statute of limitations but works very differently. A statute of limitations starts running when you’re injured. A statute of repose starts running from an earlier fixed event, like when a product was first sold or a building was completed, regardless of whether anyone has been hurt yet. And a statute of repose cannot be extended by the discovery rule, tolling, or any of the other exceptions that apply to statutes of limitations. These are absolute deadlines.
The General Aviation Revitalization Act is a clear example. It bars any claim for death, injury, or property damage against an aircraft manufacturer if the accident happened more than 18 years after the aircraft was first delivered to a purchaser.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 49 USC 40101 – Policy (General Aviation Revitalization Act Notes) It doesn’t matter if the defect was impossible to detect until year 19. The claim is gone.
Many states have statutes of repose for construction defect claims and medical devices, typically six to fifteen years from the triggering event. If an injury involves a product, a building, or professional services from years ago, check whether a statute of repose applies. It can eliminate a claim even when the regular statute of limitations hasn’t started running yet.
What Happens When the Deadline Expires
Once the limitations period runs out, the claim is dead in almost every practical sense. The mechanics still matter, because there are a few narrow escape hatches and one important procedural wrinkle.
The Defendant Has to Raise It
Expiration of the statute of limitations is an affirmative defense. The defendant must raise it, or it doesn’t apply. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8 lists “statute of limitations” among the defenses a party must affirmatively state in their response to a complaint.10Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 8 – General Rules of Pleading If a defendant files an answer but neglects to mention this defense, a court may treat it as waived, and the case proceeds. This happens more often than you’d think, particularly with unrepresented defendants who don’t know the rules.
Savings Statutes
Many states have “savings statutes” that give plaintiffs a second chance to refile if their original lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice. The typical window is six months to one year after dismissal, even if the regular limitations period has already expired. The reasoning: if you filed on time the first time, a procedural hiccup shouldn’t permanently destroy the claim. These statutes don’t apply to cases dismissed for substantive reasons or where the plaintiff voluntarily abandoned the suit and then waited too long to refile.