Guide · updated 2026-08-02
The deadline that ends a claim regardless of its value
Limitation periods for injury claims run from two to several years, but the period is the easy part. When the clock starts, which version of the statute applies, and whether a government defendant shortens everything matter more.
The period is only the headline
Two years is the most common personal injury limitation period; three and four also appear. That figure is easy to look up and rarely the thing that catches people. What catches people is the starting point. A period may run from the date of the injury, or from the date the injury was or reasonably should have been discovered. For an injury that was obvious the same day these coincide. For one that surfaced later they do not, and the difference can be years.
A change to the period does not always reach your claim
Florida cut its personal injury limitation period from four years to two in March 2023. Unlike most of the same reform act, that change was applied to causes of action accruing after the effective date — so a claim that accrued the day before still carries four years. The section was also renumbered twice in the process, which means an older citation may point at the right chapter and the wrong subsection. When a limitation period is the question, the year of the statute you are reading matters as much as the state.
Medical malpractice and government defendants run on their own clocks
Medical negligence usually has its own limitation period, often with a discovery rule and an outer repose date beyond which no claim survives regardless of discovery. Claims against a government body typically require written notice within a much shorter window before suit is even possible — the District of Columbia requires notice within six months of the injury before an action against the District can proceed. Missing a notice requirement can end a claim while the ordinary limitation period is still years from expiring.
Why the deadline sits above the arithmetic
Every valuation method produces a number that assumes a claim can still be brought. A missed deadline makes the number irrelevant. That is why the state pack behind each settlement tool carries the limitation period alongside the fault rule and the caps, and why the tools surface it with the result rather than in a footnote. Confirming the deadline that applies to a specific claim, including whether any exception or tolling rule reaches it, is a question for a lawyer licensed in that state — and it is the first question worth asking.
Official sources for this guide
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