Two years from the injury is the standard California deadline for a personal injury lawsuit, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. That sentence is also the least useful thing on most pages about this topic, because the cases that are actually lost are lost to the exceptions. If a government agency may be responsible, a written claim generally must be presented within six months, the agency has 45 days to respond, and a written rejection starts a fresh six-month deadline measured from the date it was mailed. The California Courts’ own guidance puts it plainly: when suing a government agency, look at that deadline first, whatever type of case it is.
This article sets out the standard periods, the government sequence that overrides them, when the clock actually starts, and what does not pause it. Where the courts’ own self-help guidance says something more carefully than the summaries circulating online, this page follows the courts. To talk through a specific deadline, call us at (877) 780-4727.
Key Takeaways
- Personal injury: two years from the injury. Property damage: three years. Written contract: four years. Oral contract: two years.
- A government agency changes everything, and its deadline should be checked before any other.
- After a written rejection of a government claim, the six months runs from the date the agency mailed it, not the date you received it.
- Statutes of limitations longer than 180 days were tolled between 6 April 2020 and 1 October 2020 under an Emergency Rule of Court. That still matters for older claims.
- Insurance negotiations do not pause anything.
The Standard Periods
The California Courts Self-Help Guide publishes these as the common statutes of limitations:
| Type of claim | Deadline |
| Personal injury | Two years from the injury (Code Civ. Proc., § 335.1) |
| Property damage | Three years from the date the damage occurred |
| Breach of a written contract | Four years from the date the contract was broken |
| Breach of an oral contract | Two years from the date the contract was broken |
| Fraud | Three years from when you knew, or should have known, about the fraud |
| Medical malpractice | Three years from the date of injury or one year from discovery, whichever occurs first, subject to statutory exceptions (Code Civ. Proc., § 340.5) |
| Any claim against a government agency | See the next section. Check this first. |
A wrongful death claim also runs on the two-year period, generally measured from the death rather than from the underlying incident, and those are not always the same date.
The Rule That Overrides the Others: Government Agencies
The Judicial Council’s self-help guidance is blunt about this: when suing a government agency, look at that deadline first, no matter what type of case it is. Cities, counties, school districts, transit and light rail agencies, and law enforcement agencies are all in scope.
The sequence has four steps, and each has its own timing:
- Present a written claim to the agency. Within six months of the injury where you are suing about an injury to you or damage to something you own. Within one year where a contract was broken or your real estate was damaged. The courts’ guidance points to Government Code sections 905 and 911.2 and notes there are exceptions.
- The agency has 45 days to respond.
- If it denies the claim in writing, you have six months to file your lawsuit, measured from the date the agency mailed the rejection. Not from the date it arrived. Postal time is your time.
- If the agency does not respond within 45 days, the claim is generally treated as denied, and the courts’ guidance indicates you generally have up to two years from the injury date to start a case.
Two practical consequences. A family that presents a claim at month five and receives a rejection at month seven does not have seventeen months left; they have six months from the mailing of that letter. And silence is handled differently from rejection, so it is worth having someone check which branch you are actually on rather than assuming more time.
When the Clock Starts
Most of the difficulty in this area is not the length of the period but its starting point.
The default is the date of the injury. For a collision or a fall, that is usually the incident date.
Where the problem was not discovered right away, the courts’ guidance states that the period generally starts counting from the date the problem was discovered or should reasonably have been discovered, whichever comes first. The same guidance adds that these situations can be complicated, that the time limits can be hard to work out, and that you should speak to a lawyer if you need to rely on this rule to meet a deadline. That caution is worth taking seriously: a page that tells you confidently how the discovery rule applies to your facts is telling you something it cannot know.
For a wrongful death claim, the period generally runs from the death, which may be later than the incident.
Tolling: What the Courts Actually Say
Tolling is when a period of time does not count against your deadline. Two points here are verifiable and worth knowing, and a third is worth treating carefully.
Minors
The courts’ guidance gives a minor plaintiff as its example of tolling, and describes the mechanism this way: when the reason for the tolling ends, such as when the minor turns 18, the statute of limitations begins to run again.
Note what that does and does not say. Several summaries of this topic, including Google’s AI answers for this search, state that a minor has until their twentieth birthday. That is an arithmetic inference from the two-year period, not what the courts’ guidance says, and it assumes the standard period applies and that nothing else affects it. If a minor is involved, this is a question to have checked rather than calculated from a webpage.
The 2020 tolling window
This one is concrete and almost never mentioned. Statutes of limitations longer than 180 days were tolled from 6 April 2020 to 1 October 2020 under California Emergency Rule of Court 9. That period does not count against the deadline, which may extend the time to sue on a claim from that era. If you have an older claim and have been told it is too late, that is worth raising.
Other tolling
Other circumstances can toll a period, and the summaries online list several with more confidence than they have earned. The courts’ own guidance says plainly that tolling can be hard to figure out and directs people to talk to a lawyer if they think it might apply. This page follows that rather than restating rules it cannot verify for your situation.
What Does Not Pause the Clock
- Negotiating with an insurer. An open claim, an adjuster who is still “reviewing,” and a pending offer all run alongside the deadline rather than suspending it. This is the single most common way a good claim is lost.
- Still being in treatment. A claim is hard to value before the medical picture stabilizes, which is a reason to be careful about settling early, not a reason to think the deadline waits.
- Waiting for a police or agency report.
- Presenting a government claim. That is a prerequisite to suing, not a substitute for it, and it starts its own shorter clock rather than stopping the main one.
- Not knowing who to sue. The courts’ guidance notes it is not always clear who is responsible and that you may need to research who owns a business or property. That research is your responsibility to start, not an extension.
Where a Case Is Filed
The courts’ guidance on venue is that a case is usually filed in the county where the injury happened, or where the defendant lives or does business. For matters arising in San Mateo County, that is the Superior Court’s Civil Division at the Hall of Justice, 400 County Center, Redwood City.
How Vaksman Khalfin Can Help
On deadlines specifically, Vaksman Khalfin, PC can establish which period governs your claim and when it started running, identify whether a government agency may be responsible and which one, prepare and present the claim within its window, calculate the filing deadline from the date a rejection was mailed rather than from the calendar, assess whether any tolling applies including the 2020 window, and preserve evidence while all of that is happening.
The firm’s California personal injury practice is led by Alan D. Khalfin, admitted in California. Injury matters are handled on a contingency-fee basis: there is no upfront attorney’s fee, and attorney’s fees are owed only if there is a recovery. Case costs are a separate category from attorney’s fees, and how they are handled, including whether you may be responsible for them, is set out in the written fee agreement reviewed with you before anything is signed.
If you have a letter from a government agency, bring the envelope. To talk through a deadline, call us at (877) 780-4727 or schedule a free consultation.
Reviewed by Alan D. Khalfin, Partner and Managing Attorney, Vaksman Khalfin, PC (admitted in California). Last reviewed: 09/23/2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Two years from the injury, under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. Property damage is three years, a written contract four years, and an oral contract two years. Medical malpractice follows its own framework under section 340.5. Any claim involving a government agency should be checked first, because its deadline is much shorter.
For a personal injury claim, generally no. The two-year period would have expired long before, and the courts' guidance is that you will generally lose your case if you sue after the deadline has passed. There are narrow situations where a period started later than the incident, such as where an injury was not discoverable at the time, or where tolling applied. Those are fact-specific and worth having checked rather than assumed in either direction.
There is no general five-year personal injury deadline in California. If you have seen that figure it likely relates to a different type of claim, another state, or a procedural rule rather than a limitations period. The periods that apply to injury and related claims are set out in the table above.
No. The period runs regardless of any correspondence, and an insurer is not obliged to warn you that it is approaching. Exchanging letters in good faith for months and then discovering the period has run is one of the most common ways a viable claim is lost.
It is not automatically the end. California's Government Claims Act includes a procedure for applying to the agency for leave to present a late claim, and it has its own outer limit and requirements. Whether it is available depends on the circumstances, so if you are told you are out of time, have that checked rather than accept it.
The courts' guidance is that where the problem was not discovered right away, the period generally starts from the date it was discovered or should reasonably have been discovered, whichever comes first. The same guidance cautions that these situations are complicated and advises speaking to a lawyer if you need to rely on that rule to meet a deadline.
Possibly. Statutes of limitations longer than 180 days were tolled from 6 April 2020 to 1 October 2020 under California Emergency Rule of Court 9, meaning that period does not count against the deadline. If a claim from that era has been treated as expired, the tolling window is worth raising.
Generally yes. The courts' guidance describes a minor plaintiff as an example of tolling, and says the statute of limitations begins to run again when the reason for the tolling ends, such as when the minor turns 18. The specific deadline that results depends on which period applies and whether anything else affects it, so it should be calculated with advice rather than from a general article.
That is a different question from the filing deadline. Once filed, how long a case runs depends on whether liability is contested, how many parties are involved, how much expert work is needed, whether a government claim process ran first, and the court's calendar. There is no dependable average, and filing does not end settlement discussions.
