Statute of Limitations

California’s Statute of Limitations for personal injury claims is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) § 335.1. According to § 335.1, the time to commence civil actions for assault, battery, or injury or for the wrongful death of an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another person is generally two years. Once the two years are up, you cannot file a claim. This means you cannot seek compensatory or punitive damages or any other type of relief.

Two years may seem like a long time, especially from the perspective of a recently injured person who wants only to rest, recuperate, and recover, but two years will come and go before you know it. During those two years, evidence can fade, disappear, or be covered up. Witnesses may move away or become unavailable or unable to be located. Memories can blur and get mixed up. Documents can burn in fires or get misplaced. Computer data can succumb to malware or other computer issues. It’s important to gather, maintain, and protect evidence, and it’s important to do so as soon as possible or else risk the integrity and strength of your personal injury case.

A statute of limitations for two years covers most personal injury cases, but there are different statutes of limitations for specific types of personal injury cases.

• Injury or Wrongful Death to a Person. As mentioned, when a defendant harms you with or without meaning to do so, according to CCP § 335.1, you have two (2) years from the date of the injury. Incidents where a personal injury claim or wrongful death claim may arise include but are not limited to the following:
  

   

  • Negligent or reckless acts (e.g., auto accidents, slips and falls (premises liability), nursing home accidents, bicycling accidents, pedestrian accidents, rideshare accidents, moped accidents, motorcycle accidents, boat accidents, amusement park accidents, etc.)
    
    
  • Intentional acts (e.g., assault, battery, sexual assault, etc.)
    
    
  • Intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress
    
    
  • Defective Products (e.g., breast implants, asbestos, Monsanto’s Roundup, hernia mesh devices, etc.)
    
    

• Defamation. When a defendant defames you verbally (i.e., slander) or in print, writing, or pictures (i.e., libel), according to CCP § 340(c), you have one (1) year from the date of injury––typically the date of the publication––to file a defamation suit.

• Injury to a Person Due to Known (Apparent) Problems during Construction or Improvement of Real Property. When a defendant causes harm or death via known problems, or patent defect or deficiency, occurring in the “construction of an improvement to, or survey of, real property,” according to CCP § 337.1, you typically have four (4) years from the date the construction was mostly finished. A patent deficiency refers to any defect that is “apparent by reasonable inspection.”

• Injury to a Person Due to Unknown (Not Apparent) Problems. When a defendant causes harm or death via unknown problems, or latent defects, according to CCP § 337.15, you typically have ten (10) years from the date of “substantial completion” of the construction. A latent deficiency refers to any defect that is “not apparent by reasonable inspection.”

• Injury or Death to a Person Caused by Government Agencies or Offices. Government personal injury cases are different from other personal injury cases. According to Government Code § 911.2, you must file an administrative claim with the at-fault government office before you file a lawsuit. This government claim form must be filed six (6) months of the date of injury or death.

• Medical Malpractice. When a medical professional or health-care provider causes harm or death to another person, according to CCP § 340.5, you have one (1) year from the date you discovered or should have known about the injury or three (3) years from the date the injury was sustained, whichever one occurs first. For example, imagine you had surgery and the surgeon left a sponge in your abdomen area, but you didn’t start feeling pain until two years later, at which time the sponge was discovered by X-ray. You can file a lawsuit because it was still within three-year period (the date you had the surgery and the doctor negligently left a sponge), and also within the one-year discovery period, and you wouldn’t have reasonably known that the doctor was negligent until the pain materialized to indicate something was wrong.
  
  

There are other statutes of limitations that may be relevant to your claims (even though unrelated to physical bodily injuries), namely the following:

• Property Damage. When a defendant––with or without intent––damages or destroys your property, according to CCP § 338, you have three (3) years from the date the property damage occurred. Examples of relevant property damage claims include:

o Your car via an auto accident;

o Money via conversion where a person took the property from you and converted it to his or hers;

o Property damage when a person entered your property without permission (trespass).

• Written Contracts. When a defendant breaches a written contract with you, according to CCP § 337, you have four (4) years from the date the contract was breached. This may not seem relevant to personal injury cases, but imagine you had a contract with someone to build a sunroom onto your home, and in the contract it says you must take all measures to negotiate and avoid litigation if the contract is breached. The flooring was improperly laid and the homeowner trips, falls, and harms himself. He takes the appropriate steps to negotiate and avoid litigation, but in the meantime, the statutes of limitations to file a personal injury claim expires (2 years). He may still recover damages if he files a claim based on contractual law theory, which carries a statute of limitations of 4 years.
  
  

• Oral Contracts. When a defendant breaches an oral contract with you, according to CCP § 339, you have two (2) years from the date the oral contract was breached. Oral contracts pose their own unique challenges, but typically you will have some evidence of its existence (e.g., receipts, text messages, etc.)