Personal Injury · Statute of Limitations
How Long You Have to Sue for an Injury, by State
The personal-injury statute of limitations, how many years you have to file a lawsuit after you are hurt, for each state. Plus when the clock starts, the discovery rule, and the shorter deadlines for suing a government body. Each cited to the statute.
Read this first: the deadline is a hard wall
The statute of limitations is the legal deadline to file a lawsuit. Miss it and the court can throw the case out no matter how strong it is, so it is the first thing to pin down after an injury. For most personal-injury claims the period is two years in California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, and three years in New York. Florida is the one to watch: a 2023 law cut its negligence deadline from four years to two for claims accruing on or after March 24, 2023.
Two things move the real deadline. First, when the clock starts. It usually runs from the date of injury, but a discovery rule can delay the start for an injury you could not reasonably have known about, though several states apply that rule narrowly. Second, who you are suing. Claims against a city, county, or state agency almost always carry a much shorter notice deadline, often a matter of months, that runs long before the general period. Every figure here links to the official statute, and pages still pending verification say so plainly.
Pick your state
The years to sue, the discovery rule, and the government-claim deadline on each card.
C
F
I
N
P
T
What these pages are, and what they aren't
Each state page is a reference for the personal-injury limitations period and the neutral steps you can take after an injury. They are deliberately not advice for your specific case: exceptions for minors, government defendants, wrongful death, and latent injuries can all change the answer, so each page links to the statute and a way to reach a licensed attorney. This is legal information, not legal advice.