Statute of Limitations: Civil Deadlines by Claim Type and State

A statute of limitations is a legislatively fixed deadline by which a plaintiff must file a lawsuit or lose the right to recover, regardless of the merits. Each state sets its own civil limitation periods, and the federal courts apply the relevant state statute when sitting in diversity. Limitation periods range from one year for many defamation claims to twenty years or longer for certain real-property actions. Missing the deadline is almost always fatal, so a careful claimant must verify the controlling statute, the accrual date, and any tolling rules before drafting a how to write a complaint.

Common Civil Limitation Periods by Claim Type

Claim Type	Typical Range	Notes
Personal injury (negligence)	1 to 6 years	2-3 years in most states; 1 year in Kentucky and Louisiana
Written contract	3 to 15 years	4 years in California; 6 years in New York; 15 years in Kentucky
Oral contract	2 to 6 years	Shorter than written-contract periods in nearly every state
Defamation	1 to 3 years	1 year in California, Texas, and Florida
Property damage	2 to 6 years	Often coincides with personal-injury period
Fraud	2 to 6 years	Discovery rule typically applies
UCC sales (Article 2)	4 years	Uniform across UCC-adopting states
Federal civil rights (§ 1983)	State personal-injury period	Borrows the forum state's general or residual injury statute

When the Clock Starts: The Accrual Rule

The limitation period generally begins to run when the cause of action accrues. For most negligence and breach-of-contract claims, accrual occurs when the plaintiff suffers a legal injury. For latent injuries, where the harm is not immediately apparent, most states apply the discovery rule and start the clock when the plaintiff knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and its likely cause. The discovery rule is especially common in medical malpractice, fraud, and exposure-related toxic-tort cases. A plaintiff who hopes to rely on the discovery rule should plead the date and circumstances of discovery in the civil complaint to defeat a Rule 12(b)(6) motion based on the face of the pleading.

Federal limitations: 28 U.S.C. § 1658(a) sets a four-year default for federal causes of action created after December 1, 1990; 42 U.S.C. § 1983 borrows the state personal-injury limit per Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261 (1985); 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6(h)(1)(B) sets six years for Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower claims; 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1) sets 180/300 days for Title VII; 18 U.S.C. § 3282 sets a five-year default for non-capital federal crimes. State periods control state claims: California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 335.1 (two years personal injury), 337 (four years written contract), 338(d) (three years fraud); New York CPLR §§ 213-215; Texas Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 16.001-16.073. UCC § 2-725 sets four years for goods sales.

Tolling: When the Clock Stops

Several doctrines pause or extend the limitation period:

Tolling doctrines: the discovery rule articulated in United States v. Kubrick, 444 U.S. 111 (1979), tolls accrual until plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the injury. Equitable tolling under Irwin v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 498 U.S. 89 (1990), permits tolling for diligent plaintiffs prevented by extraordinary circumstances. Equitable estoppel requires affirmative misconduct. Statutory tolling appears in 28 U.S.C. § 1367(d) (supplemental claims), 50 U.S.C. § 3936 (Servicemembers Civil Relief Act), and state minority/incapacity statutes (e.g., Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 352). Continuing-violation doctrine in employment per National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101 (2002).

• Minority and incapacity tolling. Most states pause the clock while the plaintiff is a minor or legally incompetent. The period generally resumes on the eighteenth birthday or upon restoration of capacity.
• Defendant's absence. Many states toll the period while the defendant is outside the state and unreachable for service of process.
• Equitable tolling. Federal and most state courts pause limitations when the defendant's misconduct prevented the plaintiff from filing on time, such as fraudulent concealment or intentional misrepresentation about the deadline.
• Equitable estoppel. Distinct from tolling, estoppel prevents a defendant from asserting the limitation defense when the defendant induced the plaintiff to delay.
• Continuing-violation doctrine. Each new wrongful act resets or extends the period in some employment-discrimination and nuisance contexts.

Two clock rules are easy to miss. First, in many states a debtor who makes a partial payment on a debt, or signs a written acknowledgment of the obligation, restarts the limitations period on that debt from the date of the payment or acknowledgment. The rule traces to the common-law acknowledgment doctrine and is now codified in most states, so debtors and creditors alike should date every payment carefully. Second, when a claim arose in another state, the forum may apply a borrowing statute that adopts the shorter of its own period or the period of the state where the claim accrued, which keeps plaintiffs from shopping for a forum with a longer deadline.

Statute of Limitations vs. Statute of Repose

A statute of repose is a separate, harder deadline measured from a fixed event such as completion of a building or sale of a product, and it cannot be tolled. A claim may be timely under the limitations statute but already barred by repose, especially in products-liability and construction-defect cases. Always check both.

Pleading and Defending the Limitations Issue

The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(c). The defendant must plead it in the answer or risk waiver. A defendant whose limitations defense appears on the face of the complaint may file a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal motion guide; otherwise the issue is usually resolved on summary judgment after limited discovery on accrual and tolling. Plaintiffs concerned about a fast-approaching deadline should consider sending a litigation hold letter to preserve evidence and a tolling agreement to extend the deadline by mutual consent before filing.

Amendments raise a related trap. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c), an amended complaint filed after the deadline can still relate back to the original filing date if the new claim arises from the same conduct, transaction, or occurrence set out in the original pleading. Renaming or adding a defendant relates back only if, within the Rule 4(m) service window, the new party received notice of the action and knew or should have known the suit would have named it but for a mistake. Most states apply a similar relation-back rule, though the details vary by state.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the statute of limitations in the US?

There is no single nationwide period. Each state sets its own civil limitations, and Congress sets separate periods for federal claims. Personal-injury periods commonly run two or three years, written-contract periods run four to six years in most states, and fraud periods often run three to six years subject to a discovery rule. Always confirm the period in the state whose law governs the claim and check whether a federal statute of repose also applies.

What is the 4 year statute of limitations in Texas?

Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.004 sets a four-year limitations period for several common claims, including written contracts, debt collection, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and specific performance of real-estate contracts. Personal-injury claims in Texas instead run two years under § 16.003. The four-year clock typically starts when the cause of action accrues, subject to the Texas discovery rule for inherently undiscoverable injuries.

What US crimes have no statute of limitations?

Federal law provides no statute of limitations for capital crimes, certain terrorism offenses, and some sex offenses involving minors. Most state homicide statutes also have no limitations period. Civil claims arising from these underlying acts may still be subject to ordinary state limitation periods, although several states have enacted lookback windows that revive otherwise time-barred childhood sexual-abuse claims.

Can you be charged for a crime that happened 20 years ago?

Yes, if the crime is one for which no limitations period applies, such as murder under most state codes or certain federal capital and child-exploitation offenses. Charges remain available regardless of how much time has passed. For crimes that do have a limitations period, the prosecution must commence within the statutory window unless the period has been tolled by the defendant's flight, concealment, or other recognized ground.

Does sending a demand letter stop the statute of limitations?

No. In nearly every state, only filing the lawsuit itself stops the limitations clock; a pre-suit demand letter has no tolling effect no matter how detailed it is or how the recipient responds. If settlement talks are still progressing as the deadline approaches, the safe options are a written tolling agreement signed by the defendant or simply filing the complaint and continuing to negotiate afterward.

Can a contract shorten the statute of limitations?

Often, yes. Most states enforce a contractual clause that shortens the statutory limitations period as long as the shortened window remains reasonable, and insurance policies and employment agreements commonly include one. For sales of goods, UCC § 2-725 expressly allows the parties to reduce the four-year period to as little as one year, though they may not extend it. A minority of states restrict or void limitation-shortening clauses by statute, so always check the clause against the governing state's law.