The Alabama statute of limitations sets how long you have to file a civil lawsuit or how long prosecutors have to bring criminal charges, and the answer depends on the type of case. Personal injury claims get two years. Written contract disputes get six years, or ten if the contract is under seal. Most felonies must be charged within five years, most misdemeanors within one. Murder, other capital offenses, and sex crimes against children under 16 have no deadline at all. Miss the window in a civil case and the court will dismiss your claim no matter how strong the evidence; miss it in a criminal case and the state loses the power to prosecute.
Civil Filing Deadlines by Claim Type
Alabama’s civil deadlines range from two to ten years. The clock usually starts on the date the harm occurred, though discovery rules can shift that start date for injuries that weren’t immediately apparent.
Personal Injury
You have two years to file a personal injury lawsuit in Alabama.1Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-2-38 – Commencement of Actions – Two Years That covers car accidents, slip-and-fall incidents, and other negligence claims. The two years run from the date of the injury.
Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice has its own statute. You have two years from the date of the malpractice to sue a physician, dentist, hospital, or other health care provider.2Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-5-482 – Limitation on Time
If you couldn’t reasonably have discovered the malpractice within that two-year window, a discovery rule gives you an additional six months from the date you found out or should have found out. An absolute four-year cap applies regardless. Past that point, you cannot file, even if discovery was impossible.2Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-5-482 – Limitation on Time Children under four at the time of the malpractice are the one carved-out exception: they have until their eighth birthday to file.
Property Damage
Damage to personal property or real estate carries a six-year statute of limitations. That covers vehicle collisions that damage your car, construction defects, trespass, and similar claims.3Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-2-34 – Commencement of Actions – Six Years The clock starts when the damage occurs, or when you discover it in cases involving hidden harm like environmental contamination or concealed structural defects.
Contract Disputes
The deadline for breach of contract depends on the type of agreement. Contracts under seal carry the longest limitation at ten years.4Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-2-33 – Commencement of Actions – Ten Years Written contracts not under seal, oral agreements, and other simple contracts fall under a six-year deadline.3Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-2-34 – Commencement of Actions – Six Years
The clock starts on the date of the breach, not the date the contract was signed. In some cases, partial payments or written acknowledgments of a debt can restart the limitation period.
Wrongful Death
Wrongful death claims must be filed within two years of the date of death, not the date of the underlying injury.5Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-5-410 – Wrongful Act, Omission, or Negligence That distinction matters when someone is injured and dies weeks or months later. Only the personal representative of the deceased person’s estate can bring the claim.
Workers’ Compensation
For occupational injuries, a workers’ compensation claim must be filed within two years of the injury.6Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 25-5-117 – Limitation Period for Claims If the employer has been paying compensation, the two-year clock doesn’t start until the last payment.
Criminal Charging Deadlines
Statutes of limitations in criminal cases fix how long prosecutors have to file charges. Once the deadline passes, the state cannot prosecute, regardless of the evidence.
Felonies
The default statute of limitations for felonies in Alabama is five years from the date the crime was committed.7Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-3-1 – Felonies Generally That applies to crimes like theft, burglary, and many drug offenses. Certain felonies involving public funds or specific property crimes carry different deadlines under separate provisions.
Misdemeanors
Most misdemeanors carry a 12-month statute of limitations.8Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-3-2 – Misdemeanors Generally That covers simple assault, harassment, petty theft, and similar offenses. The clock starts on the date the alleged violation occurred.
Offenses With No Time Limit
Alabama exempts certain serious crimes from any prosecution deadline. Under state law, there is no statute of limitations for:
- Capital offenses, including murder and any other crime classified as a capital offense under Alabama law.
- Any sex offense involving a victim under 16 years old, regardless of whether force was involved.9Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 15-3-5 – Offenses Having No Limitation
When the Clock Pauses
Alabama recognizes several situations where it would be unfair to let the statute of limitations run, so the law pauses it. These “tolling” rules can significantly change the real deadline in your case.
Minors and Incapacitated Persons
If a potential plaintiff is a minor or is legally incapacitated when a claim arises, the statute of limitations does not begin running until they reach the age of majority or regain competency. Alabama’s age of majority is 19, not 18.10Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 26-1-1 – Age of Majority Designated as 19 So a child injured at age 10 would have until age 21 to file a personal injury claim: 19 plus the two-year limitation. The four-year cap on medical malpractice claims still applies to most minors, with the exception noted above for children under four.
Defendant’s Absence From the State
If a civil defendant leaves Alabama after a cause of action arises, time spent outside the state does not count toward the statute of limitations.11Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-2-10 – Computation of Time – Absence of Person From State In criminal cases the same principle generally applies: if a suspect flees the state, the clock stops until they return.
Fraud and Concealment
When a claim is based on fraud, the limitation period doesn’t start until the victim actually discovers it. Once you discover the fraud, you have two years to file suit.12Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-2-3 – Accrual of Claim – Fraud You’ll need to show you exercised reasonable diligence in uncovering the fraud to use this rule.
Military Service
Federal law adds tolling protection for active-duty service members. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, time spent on active military duty is excluded from any statute of limitations calculation for actions brought by or against the service member, and this applies in Alabama state courts.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 U.S. Code 3936 – Statute of Limitations It does not extend IRS tax deadlines.
Federal Deadlines That Also Apply in Alabama
Several federal deadlines run independently of state law, and they’re often shorter than Alabama’s.
If a debt collector violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you have one year from the date of the violation to sue in federal court.14Federal Trade Commission. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act That’s much tighter than Alabama’s contract deadlines, and people miss it constantly.
Workplace discrimination charges must be filed with the EEOC within 180 calendar days of the discriminatory act.15U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge The deadline extends to 300 days when a state or local agency enforces the same type of anti-discrimination law, but Alabama does not have a robust state fair employment practices agency, so 180 days is what applies in most cases. Federal employees face just 45 days to contact an agency EEO counselor.
The IRS generally has three years after you file a return to assess additional taxes. If you underreported income by more than 25%, that stretches to six years. A fraudulent return removes the deadline entirely.16Internal Revenue Service. Time IRS Can Assess Tax Once a tax liability is assessed, the IRS has 10 years to collect it.17Internal Revenue Service. Time IRS Can Collect Tax
For federal criminal charges, non-capital offenses must be prosecuted within five years.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3282 – Offenses Not Capital Specific statutes override this for crimes like tax evasion, terrorism, and major fraud.
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
Filing late is almost always fatal. In a civil case, the defendant raises the expired statute of limitations as an affirmative defense, and the court will dismiss the claim regardless of the evidence. Judges have essentially no discretion to override an expired deadline outside the tolling rules above. Once dismissed on this ground, the claim is gone permanently. You cannot refile.
In a criminal case, an expired statute of limitations prevents prosecution entirely. If charges are filed after the deadline, defense counsel can move to dismiss, and the court must grant it. The only exceptions are the offenses listed above that carry no limit at all.
Amending a Lawsuit After the Deadline
One narrow exception matters if you filed on time but named the wrong defendant. Alabama Rule of Civil Procedure 15(c) allows an amended complaint to “relate back” to the original filing date, effectively bypassing the statute of limitations for the newly named party. The amendment must be filed within the limitation period or within 120 days of filing the lawsuit, whichever is later. The new defendant must have had enough notice of the lawsuit that they won’t be unfairly prejudiced, and they must have known or should have known they were the intended target.19Alabama Judicial System. Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 15 This comes up most often in product liability cases where the plaintiff initially doesn’t know which manufacturer or supplier was responsible.