Statute of Limitations: How the Filing Clock Is Actually Counted

A statute of limitations sets how long you have to file a claim before the right to bring it disappears. Miss it and the merits stop mattering: a well-founded claim filed a day late is generally dismissed without ever being heard. Understanding how the clock is counted matters more than almost any other date on this site.

There is no single limitation period

The first thing to abandon is the idea that there is a number. Limitation periods are set state by state and claim by claim, and the variation is enormous.

Personal injury runs from one year in a small number of states to six in others. Breach of a written contract is commonly four to six years; oral contracts are usually shorter, which is one concrete reason to write things down. Property damage, fraud, defamation, medical malpractice and wage claims each run on their own clock, and a single set of facts can generate several claims with several different deadlines.

A one-year state and a three-year state applying the same facts produce deadlines two years apart. That is why our statute of limitations calculator returns no date at all for a state whose data has not been verified, rather than falling back on a default. An earlier version did use a default, and in one-year states it was reporting personal-injury deadlines a full year late — the most dangerous possible error, because the answer looked entirely reasonable.

Accrual: when the clock starts

The default rule is that the period runs from the date the cause of action accrued — generally when the injury or breach occurred. Two doctrines move that.

The discovery rule

In many jurisdictions and for many claim types, the clock starts when the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and its cause. This exists for injuries that are not apparent when they happen: latent disease from a toxic exposure, a surgical instrument left in place, a defect that only manifests years later.

The discovery rule is a genuine extension and also a trap, because "should have known" is decided in hindsight by a court. A plaintiff who suspected something was wrong but did not investigate may find the clock started earlier than they assumed.

Statutes of repose

A statute of repose is a different animal and is frequently confused with a limitation period. It runs from a fixed event — substantial completion of construction, first sale of a product — and it can extinguish a claim before the injury even occurs. It is generally not subject to the discovery rule and generally cannot be tolled. In construction and product liability, checking the repose period is as important as checking the limitation period.

Tolling: when the clock pauses

Several circumstances suspend the running of time. The common ones:

• Minority. For a claimant who was a child when the claim accrued, the period typically does not begin until they reach majority.
• Legal incapacity at the time of accrual.
• Defendant's absence from the jurisdiction, in many states.
• Fraudulent concealment by the defendant of the facts giving rise to the claim.
• Bankruptcy, where the automatic stay suspends actions against the debtor.

Tolling is fact-specific and is argued, not assumed. A calculator cannot apply it, and a date produced without it is a floor rather than a ceiling.

Special defendants, special deadlines

Claims against government entities are the sharpest edge here. Most states require a notice of claim against a state or municipal body within a very short window — often 90 or 180 days from the incident, sometimes as little as 30. Miss that notice and the underlying claim is barred even though the general limitation period has years left to run.

Medical malpractice frequently carries its own hybrid rule: a discovery-based period capped by an outer repose limit, plus a pre-suit notice or certificate-of-merit requirement with its own timing.

Filing, not resolving

The deadline is to file the claim, not to settle it, and generally not to serve it — service usually has its own separate and shorter deadline once proceedings are issued. Settlement negotiations do not stop the clock. Neither does a defendant's insurer saying they are still reviewing the file. Both are common ways for a period to expire while a claimant believes it is being dealt with.

Treat any calculated date as a planning date

Given accrual questions, tolling, repose periods and notice requirements, a limitation date computed from an incident date is a planning tool. It tells you roughly how much room you have and whether you are in months or years. It is not a substitute for someone applying the governing state's law to your actual facts, and where the date is close, the only sensible move is to get advice immediately rather than to trust any calculator, including ours.

General information about how limitation periods are counted, not legal advice. Limitation periods vary by state and by claim, and accrual and tolling are fact-specific questions that only a lawyer reviewing your circumstances can answer. If a deadline may be near, consult an attorney without delay.