Arizona Car Accident Statute of Limitations and Exceptions

In Arizona, the car accident statute of limitations is two years from the date of the crash for both injury and property damage claims, under A.R.S. § 12-542.¹ That window shrinks dramatically if a government vehicle or employee was involved, and a handful of exceptions can pause or shift the start date. Miss the applicable deadline and you lose the right to sue, no matter how strong the facts are.

The Two-Year Deadline

A.R.S. § 12-542 gives you two years from the date of the collision to file a lawsuit for bodily injury or property damage.¹ That covers emergency treatment, ongoing physical therapy, vehicle repair or replacement, and most other losses tied to the crash. The clock starts the day of the accident unless one of the exceptions below applies.

Insurance negotiations do not pause this deadline. People often spend months going back and forth with an adjuster and watch the calendar slip without realizing it. You can settle at any point, but if talks fall apart, you need enough time left to actually file a complaint in court. Once the two years run out, the other driver can ask the court to dismiss, and the court will.

If a Government Vehicle Was Involved

Crashes involving a city bus, a state vehicle, a county truck, or any government employee driving on duty follow a much faster timeline. There are two separate deadlines, and both have to be met.

180-Day Notice of Claim

Before you can sue any Arizona public entity or public employee, A.R.S. § 12-821.01 requires you to serve a formal Notice of Claim within 180 days of the accident.² That’s roughly six months, not two years. The notice has to include enough facts for the agency to understand why it’s being held responsible, plus a specific dollar figure you’d accept to settle.

How you serve the notice matters as much as what’s in it. The statute requires service on the person authorized to accept it under the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure.² Send it to the wrong person or by the wrong method and the notice can be invalid, killing your claim before it starts. If you’re not sure who the authorized recipient is, call the agency’s clerk or legal office before you send anything.

One-Year Lawsuit Deadline

Even after you’ve properly served the notice, A.R.S. § 12-821 gives you only one year from when the cause of action accrued to file the actual lawsuit. The agency has 60 days to respond to your notice; silence counts as a denial.²

The one-year lawsuit clock does not pause while you wait for the agency to answer. In some cases, the 60-day response window closes close to or even after the one-year filing deadline, so you have to track both independently and be ready to file quickly if the claim is denied.

If a Federal Employee Was Involved

Postal trucks, military vehicles, and other federal employees on duty fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act, not Arizona law. The FTCA gives you two years from the accident to submit a written administrative claim to the responsible federal agency.³ You cannot skip this step and go straight to federal court.

Once the agency receives your claim, it either denies it or sits on it for six months, at which point you can treat the silence as a denial.⁴ If a written denial arrives by certified or registered mail, you then have six months to file suit in federal court.³ That six-month window is short enough to cause real problems if you aren’t watching the mail.

If Someone Died in the Crash

When a car accident is fatal, A.R.S. § 12-542 still gives two years, but the clock starts on the date of death rather than the date of the crash.¹ This matters when someone survives the initial collision and dies from their injuries weeks or months later. The family’s two years don’t start until the death occurs.

A separate survival action can continue the injured person’s own claim for damages they accumulated between the crash and their death. Arizona allows most causes of action to survive under A.R.S. § 14-3110, with the personal representative of the estate stepping in to pursue them. Pain and suffering damages, though, do not survive the person’s death.⁵ Families often file both the wrongful death claim and the survival action together.

When the Clock Starts Late or Pauses

Injuries You Didn’t Notice Right Away

Soft tissue damage, internal bleeding, and traumatic brain injuries sometimes take weeks to produce symptoms. Arizona’s discovery rule, established by the Arizona Supreme Court in Kenyon v. Hammer, says the two-year clock begins when you know, or through reasonable effort should have known, both that you were injured and that someone else’s negligence caused it.

It isn’t an unlimited extension. Courts look at medical records, the type of symptoms, and what a reasonable person would have done. If you felt fine after the crash and a doctor diagnosed a herniated disc three months later, the two years likely run from the diagnosis. The burden is on you to show the injury wasn’t discoverable sooner, so follow-up medical visits after any accident are worth the time.

Minors and People Who Lack Capacity

A.R.S. § 12-502 pauses the statute of limitations for anyone under 18 or of unsound mind at the time of the accident. Time spent as a minor or while incapacitated doesn’t count. A child injured at age 10 has until age 20 to file. Someone left mentally incapacitated by the crash itself has the clock paused until capacity returns or a legal representative is appointed.⁶ A parent or guardian can file on a child’s behalf right away, which is usually the better move because evidence fades and witnesses move.

What Missing the Deadline Actually Costs

If you file after the statute of limitations has run, the defendant raises it as an affirmative defense and the court dismisses the case. Liability can be obvious, injuries can be severe, and it won’t matter. Judges have very little discretion outside the tolling and discovery provisions already in the statutes.

The deadline governs filing a lawsuit, not settling with an insurer. You can keep negotiating after the two years expire, but the insurer knows you’ve lost the ability to sue, and offers usually drop sharply or disappear. If you’re anywhere near a deadline, filing the complaint protects your position even while settlement talks continue.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 12-542 – Injury to Person; Injury When Death Ensues; Injury to Property; Conversion of Property; Forcible Entry and Forcible Detainer; Two Year Limitation
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 12-821.01 – Authorization of Claim Against Public Entity, Public School or Public Employee
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite; Evidence
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 14-3110 – Action by or Against Personal Representative; Survival of Actions
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 12-502 – Effect of Minority or Insanity