735 ILCS 5/13-202: Illinois 2-Year Injury Deadline and Tolling

Under the Illinois statute of limitations for personal injury, you generally have two years from the date of your injury to file a lawsuit. That deadline comes from 735 ILCS 5/13-202, and Illinois courts enforce it strictly.¹ Miss it by a day, and the defendant can get your case thrown out no matter how strong the underlying facts are. Several situations shift that window, though: the clock may start later than you think, the deadline drops to one year if you’re suing a local government, and a handful of exceptions can pause the count entirely.

What the Two-Year Rule Covers

Section 13-202 applies to more than car crashes and slip-and-falls. The statute reaches personal injury, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, statutory penalties, abduction, and seduction.¹ Illinois courts read “injury to the person” broadly, so it also covers torts that damage dignity or liberty — being wrongfully detained at a store, for example, or having baseless criminal charges filed against you.

One boundary worth flagging, because the assumption cuts the wrong way: defamation and privacy claims are not on this two-year clock. Slander, libel, and privacy violations fall under 735 ILCS 5/13-201, which allows only one year to file.² Someone defamed in a news article who assumes they have two years can lose the right to sue entirely.

When the Two-Year Clock Starts Running

For a straightforward collision, the clock starts on the date of the crash. But injuries aren’t always obvious the moment they happen, and Illinois courts recognize the discovery rule for that reason. The two-year period begins when you knew or reasonably should have known that you were injured and that someone else’s conduct caused it.

Medical malpractice is the classic scenario. A surgeon leaves a sponge inside a patient, the patient feels fine for months, and an unrelated scan finally reveals the problem. The two-year clock doesn’t start on the day of the surgery. It starts on the day the patient discovered the object or should have discovered it through ordinary attention to their own health.

Courts scrutinize the “should have known” side of that test closely. Persistent symptoms, prior diagnoses, or a doctor’s warning that something might be wrong can all mean you were on notice earlier than you claim. Ignoring signs doesn’t buy extra time. The discovery rule protects people from hidden injuries, not people who avoid looking into obvious ones.

The Four-Year Ceiling on Medical Malpractice

The discovery rule has a hard outer limit for medical claims. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-212, no lawsuit against a physician, dentist, registered nurse, or hospital for patient care can be filed more than four years after the act or omission that caused the injury, regardless of when the patient discovered it.³ This is a statute of repose, not a statute of limitations, and the difference matters. A limitations period starts when you find out. A repose period starts when the procedure happened, whether you know anything went wrong or not.

So a surgical error in January 2022 discovered in March 2026 is still inside the two-year discovery window but outside the four-year repose period that expired in January 2026. The claim is barred.

For minors, the repose period stretches to eight years from the medical act, but never past the patient’s 22nd birthday.³ Fraudulent concealment by the defendant, discussed below, can override the ceiling.

One Year for Claims Against Local Government

This is where people lose winnable cases. If the party that injured you was a local government body or a government employee acting within the scope of their job, the two-year rule does not apply. The Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act gives you one year from the date of injury or accrual to file suit.⁴

The one-year deadline reaches injuries from city buses, neglected public sidewalks, incidents at public parks, state-law police misconduct claims, and any other tort tied to a local government entity or its workers. Assume you have two years because your claim is a “personal injury” action, and you’ll be halfway through the limitations period before you realize you missed it. The consequence is the same as blowing the two-year deadline: dismissal, permanent.

Situations That Pause the Clock

Minors and People With Legal Disabilities

Illinois pauses the limitations clock for people who lacked the legal capacity to sue when their injury occurred. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-211, if you were under 18 or under a legal disability at the time the cause of action accrued, you have two years after turning 18 or after the disability is removed.⁵ For a child injured at age 10, the deadline falls on their 20th birthday.

The same section covers a less common situation: someone who wasn’t disabled when injured but became disabled before the two years ran. The clock pauses until the disability is removed.⁵ Note the trigger: the clock restarts when the disability ends, not when a guardian is appointed. Having a guardian doesn’t restart the filing window.

One important limit. Tolling under Section 13-211 does not override a statute of repose. If a repose period expires while the person is still a minor or still disabled, the claim is barred anyway.⁵

Defendant Out of State

Under 735 ILCS 5/13-208, if the defendant was outside Illinois when the cause of action accrued, the two-year period doesn’t begin until they enter or return to the state. If they leave after accrual, the time they spend outside Illinois doesn’t count against your filing window.⁶

The catch: this tolling does not apply if the defendant can still be reached through Illinois’s long-arm jurisdiction statutes. A defendant who can be properly served under Illinois law from another state isn’t “absent” for tolling purposes.⁶ The provision helps most when the defendant has genuinely disappeared beyond the reach of service.

Fraudulent Concealment

If the person who injured you actively hid the facts that would have revealed your claim, 735 ILCS 5/13-215 gives you five years from the date you discover the cause of action.⁷ This window overrides even the medical malpractice statute of repose.

Fraudulent concealment requires more than silence. The defendant must have taken affirmative steps to keep you from learning about the injury or its cause. A doctor who alters medical records to hide a surgical error is the standard example. Simply failing to volunteer information, without active deception, generally will not qualify.

Exception for Serious Violent Crime

Section 13-202 carves out victims of the worst crimes. If your injury resulted from first-degree murder or a Class X felony and the perpetrator was convicted, the two-year limitation does not apply.¹ Surviving victims and their families aren’t forced to race a deadline that could expire before the criminal case even reaches trial.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

Once the applicable period runs, the defendant has an absolute defense. The court dismisses the case on a motion to dismiss, and the dismissal is with prejudice. There’s no extension, no second chance, and no room for a judge to weigh the merits. The strength of your evidence and the severity of your injury don’t matter once the clock has run.

The only routes around an expired deadline are the tolling provisions above: minority, legal disability, defendant absence, or fraudulent concealment. Courts read them narrowly. If none applies, the two-year mark, or the one-year mark for government defendants, is the final word. Filing well before the deadline is the only reliable way to keep the option open, because service of the summons still has to happen after filing and locating a defendant can take longer than expected.

1
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 735 ILCS 5/13-202 – Personal Injury – Penalty
2
Justia Law. Illinois Compiled Statutes Chapter 735 Act 735 ILCS 5 – Article XIII Limitations
3
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 735 ILCS 5/13-212 – Physician or Hospital – Limitation
4
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 745 ILCS 10 – Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act
5
Justia Law. Illinois Compiled Statutes Chapter 735 Act 735 ILCS 5 – Article XIII Limitations – Section 13-211
6
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 735 ILCS 5/13-208 – Absence from State
7
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 735 ILCS 5/13-215 – Fraudulent Concealment