California Statutes of Limitations: The Deadlines for Common Lawsuits
The statute of limitations is the deadline for filing a lawsuit. Miss it, and the case is generally over before it starts, no matter how strong the facts are. In California most of these deadlines are in the Code of Civil Procedure, and the answer to “how long do I have?” depends on the kind of claim. The most common ones: two years for personal injury, four years for a written contract, two years for an oral contract, three years for fraud or property damage, and one year for defamation. Claims against a government entity run on a much shorter track.
Those are the headline numbers. The harder questions are when the clock starts, what pauses it, and why filing at the last minute can still lose the case.
The main deadlines at a glance
Each period is measured from the date the claim “accrues,” a concept covered below. Section numbers are in the Code of Civil Procedure unless noted.
- Personal injury (assault, battery, negligence): 2 years. § 335.1.
- Wrongful death: 2 years. § 335.1.
- Damage to property, real or personal: 3 years. § 338(b), (c).
- Written contract: 4 years. § 337(a). The same four years applies to a book account or an account stated in writing. § 337(b).
- Oral contract: 2 years. § 339.
- Fraud or mistake: 3 years, running from discovery of the facts constituting the fraud. § 338(d).
- Libel and slander: 1 year. § 340(c).
- Medical malpractice: 1 year from when you discovered or should have discovered the injury, but never more than 3 years from the injury itself, with narrow exceptions for fraud, intentional concealment, or a foreign object left in the body. § 340.5.
- Legal malpractice: 1 year from discovery or 4 years from the wrongful act, whichever comes first, subject to specific tolling rules. § 340.6.
The label that matters is the legal theory, not the story. A dispute with a contractor may be a written contract claim (four years), an oral promise claim (two years), a fraud claim (three years from discovery), and a property damage claim (three years) all at once, and each piece has its own deadline. And any of these can be governed by a different, shorter clock if the defendant is a public entity.
Suing a city, county, school district, or the state
Claims against California public entities and their employees do not start with a lawsuit. They start with a government claim under the Government Claims Act, and the deadline to present it is short: six months from accrual for claims involving death, personal injury, or damage to personal property, and one year for most other claims, including contract claims. (Gov. Code § 911.2.) The entity then has a period to accept or reject the claim. If it mails a proper written rejection, the lawsuit must be filed within six months of that notice; if it never sends one, the lawsuit deadline is two years from accrual. (Gov. Code § 945.6.)
If the six-month claim deadline is missed, a written application for leave to present a late claim can be made, but it must be presented within a reasonable time and never more than one year after accrual, and the entity can deny it. (Gov. Code § 911.4.) A fall at a public park, a crash with a city vehicle, a dispute with a public school: in each case the two-year personal injury statute is not the deadline that matters. The six-month claim deadline is.
When the clock starts: accrual
A statute of limitations runs from the date the cause of action accrues. In most cases that is the date the wrongful act happened and caused harm: the day of the crash, the day the payment was due and not made, the day the defamatory statement was published. For simple claims, accrual is obvious and the deadline can be counted on a calendar. It gets harder when the harm was not apparent right away. That is where the discovery rule comes in.
The discovery rule
Under California’s discovery rule, accrual of some claims is postponed until the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, the injury and its wrongful cause. The rule is written directly into several statutes: fraud claims accrue on discovery of the facts constituting the fraud (§ 338(d)), and medical and legal malpractice claims run one year from discovery (§§ 340.5, 340.6). Courts also apply it to other claims where the injury was hidden.
Two cautions. The rule turns on when you should have known, not when you actually connected the dots. Suspicion that something is wrong is generally enough to start the clock, even if you do not yet know exactly who is at fault or how. And a plaintiff who relies on delayed discovery is expected to plead and prove it: the specific date of discovery, why it could not have been discovered earlier, and what diligence was used. A vague “I didn’t realize until recently” usually does not carry that burden.
Some statutes also cap the discovery rule. Medical malpractice is the clearest example: whenever the injury was discovered, the outside limit is three years from the date of injury unless fraud, concealment, or a foreign body is proven. Legal malpractice has a similar four-year outside limit.
Tolling: when the clock pauses
Tolling suspends the running of the statute for a period; the clock resumes when the tolling condition ends. The main statutory rules:
- Minority and incapacity. If the plaintiff was under 18 or lacked legal capacity when the claim accrued, the period of that disability does not count. (§ 352.) This does not apply to claims that must go through the government claims process, which has its own, narrower rules for minors.
- Defendant out of state. If the defendant is outside California when the claim accrues, or leaves afterward, the time of absence is generally not counted. (§ 351.) Courts have declined to apply this rule where it would burden interstate commerce, so it should not be assumed to apply in every case.
- Bankruptcy. A defendant’s bankruptcy filing triggers an automatic stay that bars suing them. Federal law provides that if the limitations period had not yet expired when the petition was filed, it does not expire until the later of its normal end or 30 days after notice that the stay has ended. (11 U.S.C. § 108(c).)
Tolling is not automatic in practice: the plaintiff usually has to raise it and prove the facts. Do not assume a deadline was extended without confirming which rule applies and exactly how many days it adds.
Sexual assault claims
These periods have been substantially lengthened. For sexual assault of an adult, the period is 10 years from the last act, or three years from discovery that an injury resulted, whichever is later. (§ 340.16.) For childhood sexual assault occurring on or after January 1, 2024, there is no time limit; earlier assaults remain subject to the prior rule, which generally allowed suit up to 22 years after the survivor turned 18 or within five years of discovery. (§ 340.1.) The Legislature has also opened revival windows for previously expired claims, some closing at the end of 2026 and 2027, with rules that differ by defendant. Anyone with a claim in this area should have the specific dates checked rather than rely on a summary.
Why filing at the last minute is risky
Filing the complaint stops the statute of limitations, but it does not end the deadline problems. Several reasons to leave a margin:
Service has its own clock. The summons and complaint must be served within three years of filing (§ 583.210), and that limit is mandatory; a case not served in time must be dismissed. (§ 583.250.) Three years sounds generous, but defendants who cannot be located, corporations that have dissolved, and out-of-state defendants eat that time quickly.
Amendments may not relate back. If a complaint filed on the last day names the wrong defendant or omits a claim, adding it later may be treated as a new filing on the new date, after the deadline has passed. California’s “Doe defendant” practice helps with unknown parties, but only if the original complaint was drafted with it in mind.
Counting is not always simple. Deadline math involves accrual date disputes, court holidays, and rules that move a last day falling on a weekend or holiday to the next court day. A calculation done at the last minute has no room to be wrong.
The practical advice is unglamorous: identify every possible legal theory early, find the shortest deadline among them, and treat that as the real one.
If you are on the receiving end of a complaint, see Served With a Lawsuit in California? The 30-Day Clock and What to Do. For the personal injury clock in practice, see Injured in a California Car Accident? Deadlines and What to Know, and for contract claims, Someone Broke a Contract in California — What Are Your Options?.
Not sure which deadline applies to your situation? Ask a legal question.