California Injury Statute of Limitations: The Exceptions

You were hurt a while ago, maybe more than a year back, and you have just started wondering whether it is too late to do anything about it. You have probably heard that California gives you two years. That is the general rule, but it is not the whole answer. This post covers when the two years actually starts, when it pauses, and when a much shorter deadline applies instead.

The short version: most adults injured in an ordinary accident by a private person or business do have two years from the date of injury. Children, people who lacked legal capacity when they were hurt, people whose injury surfaced later, and anyone hurt by a government agency are all on different clocks.

The baseline: two years from the injury

Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 sets a two-year limit for "an action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another." Car crashes, falls on someone else's property, dog bites, and most other everyday injury cases fall under it. So does a wrongful death claim brought by the family.

A few things that do not stop this clock, because nothing in § 335.1 says they do:

• An open insurance claim. Months of back-and-forth with an adjuster do not pause the deadline. The insurer knows your date as well as you do.
• Ongoing medical treatment. You do not get extra time because you are still in physical therapy.
• Waiting for the police report. The deadline runs whether or not the paperwork has arrived.

The deadline is for filing a lawsuit, not for settling. Many claims settle without a suit ever being filed, but if talks have not finished as the two years runs out, a suit has to be filed to keep the claim alive. An adjuster who is still "reviewing" in month 23 has not done you a favor.

When the clock starts late: injuries you could not have known about

Most injuries are obvious the day they happen. Some are not, and California does not require you to sue over a harm you had no reason to suspect.

The California Supreme Court laid out the rule in Jolly v. Eli Lilly & Co. (1988): "the limitations period begins when the plaintiff suspects, or should suspect, that she has been wronged." You do not need to know every fact or have a legal theory. In the court's words, "A plaintiff need not be aware of the specific 'facts' necessary to establish the claim."

The other half of that rule is the part that sinks cases. Once you suspect something, the court said, "the plaintiff must go find the facts; she cannot wait for the facts to find her." The clock starts at suspicion, not at certainty. If a doctor tells you your symptoms may be linked to something someone else did, the safest assumption is that your two years has started.

This rule matters most for injuries that develop slowly or surface late, such as harm from a defective product or a condition a later scan reveals. It is not a way to revive an ordinary car crash claim you simply did not get around to. When you were hit and hurt on the same day, the clock almost always started that day.

When the clock pauses: children and incapacity

Section 352 says that if the injured person, when the claim arose, was "under the age of majority" or "lacking the legal capacity to make decisions," then "the time of the disability is not part of the time limited for the commencement of the action."

For a child, that means the two years generally does not begin until they turn 18. A 12-year-old hurt by a negligent driver usually has until their 20th birthday to file against that driver. Parents can still bring the claim much sooner, and usually should while the evidence is fresh. Settling a minor's claim also follows its own rules, covered in settling a child's injury claim.

Two limits are written into the statute itself:

• The disability has to exist when the claim arose. The text says "at the time the cause of action accrued." Losing capacity months after the accident does not pause a clock that is already running.
• It does not apply to government claims. Subdivision (b) says the section does not apply to claims against a public entity or public employee where the Government Code requires a claim to be presented first. A child hit by a city vehicle does not get to wait until 18.

When the defendant leaves California

Section 351 contains an older rule. If the person responsible is out of California when the claim arises, the clock generally runs only after they return. If they leave after the claim arises, the time they are gone does not count.

It sounds like a safety net, but do not plan around it. Whether it applies depends on who the defendant is and where they went, and it is the kind of argument you want to be raising as a backup, not depending on in month 25. If the at-fault driver lives out of state or has moved away, treat the ordinary two-year deadline as the real one and get a lawyer's view early.

The deadline that is much shorter: government claims

This is where most late claims actually die. If a public entity is involved, such as a city bus, a county truck, a school district vehicle, a Caltrans road, or a broken city sidewalk, you generally have to present a formal written claim to that agency within six months of the injury before you are allowed to sue at all.

That six-month claim is a separate step with its own rules, and missing it can end the case before the two-year statute ever matters. What happens after the agency responds has its own deadline too. Our post on the six-month government claim deadline walks through both deadlines step by step.

Different harm, different clock

Not everything from the same crash shares one deadline. Section 338 gives three years for "an action for taking, detaining, or injuring goods or chattels," which covers property such as your car. Your injury claim and your vehicle damage claim can therefore expire on different dates.

Your own insurance policy can add yet another clock. An uninsured motorist claim under your own policy has a separate two-year requirement with specific formal steps, explained in our post on being hit by an uninsured driver.

What this means in California

• Two years under CCP § 335.1 is the default for injury and wrongful death claims against private parties.
• Six months is the general deadline to present a claim against a public entity, and the minor and incapacity pause in § 352 does not extend it.
• Later start is possible when an injury or its cause could not reasonably have been suspected, but the clock starts at suspicion, not proof.
• Paused time applies to people who were minors or lacked legal capacity when the claim arose.
• Comparative fault does not shorten any deadline. California's pure comparative negligence rule reduces your recovery by your share of fault rather than barring it, but only if the claim is filed in time.

Courts enforce these deadlines strictly. A late filing usually ends the case no matter how clear the other side's fault was, and there is rarely a way to argue around it after the fact.

Practical next steps

Find the exact date you were hurt and write it down, along with the date you first suspected someone else caused the harm if those differ. Figure out whether any government agency, vehicle, or property was involved, because that single fact can turn two years into six months. Collect the names and addresses of everyone involved, including where the other driver lives now. And if you are within a few months of any deadline, do not spend that time negotiating with an adjuster on your own. A free consultation costs nothing and there is no fee unless there is a recovery.