California Statute of Limitations: Civil, Criminal, and Tolling

The California statute of limitations is the deadline for filing a civil lawsuit or bringing criminal charges, and in most cases missing it by a single day ends the matter permanently. The deadline you face depends on the type of claim: two years is the common window for personal injury, but the full range runs from six months for claims against a government agency up to no limit at all for murder, certain sex crimes, and childhood sexual abuse occurring on or after January 1, 2024. Each claim type has its own clock, its own starting trigger, and its own exceptions.

Common Civil Deadlines at a Glance

Personal injury, assault, battery, wrongful death: 2 years
Property damage: 3 years
Fraud: 3 years from discovery
Written contract: 4 years
Oral contract: 2 years
Medical malpractice: 1 year from discovery, 3 years outer limit
Libel or slander: 1 year
Latent construction defect: 10 years outer limit
Claim against a government entity: 6 months (injury/property) or 1 year (other)
Childhood sexual abuse (conduct on or after January 1, 2024): no deadline

Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, and Assault

You have two years to file for physical harm caused by someone else’s wrongful act or negligence, and the same window covers assault, battery, and wrongful death.¹ The clock starts on the date of the injury, not the date you hire a lawyer or identify who was at fault. A car crash on March 15, 2025 gives you until March 15, 2027.

Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 borrow this same two-year deadline when filed in California, because the federal statute does not set its own window. Police misconduct and constitutional violation claims therefore follow the ordinary negligence clock.

Property Damage and Fraud

Damage to real or personal property gets three years under Code of Civil Procedure Section 338, whether the harm is a totaled car, a damaged fence, or structural damage to your home from a neighbor’s negligence.²

Fraud shares the three-year statute but with a different trigger: the clock starts when you discover, or reasonably should have discovered, the facts behind the fraud.² A forged signature in 2024 that you discover in 2026 gives you until 2029.

Contracts and Debt

Written contracts carry a four-year deadline that begins when the breach occurs, such as the day a payment is missed or a delivery fails to arrive.³ Oral contracts get two years.⁴ Contracts for the sale of goods follow the Uniform Commercial Code, which also sets a four-year deadline running from the date of breach regardless of whether the buyer knows about it.⁵

Medical Malpractice

Medical negligence runs on a tighter clock than ordinary injury. Code of Civil Procedure Section 340.5 requires filing within one year of discovering the injury and sets an absolute three-year outer limit from the date the injury occurred. Whichever deadline comes first controls.⁶

Three narrow exceptions push the three-year ceiling further out: proof that the healthcare provider committed fraud, intentionally concealed the error, or left a foreign object such as a surgical sponge inside the patient’s body.⁶ Outside those situations the three-year wall is firm, even if the patient had no reasonable way to discover the mistake. Malpractice cases routinely die here.

Defamation

Libel and slander carry one of the shortest civil deadlines in California: one year from the date the defamatory statement is made, under Code of Civil Procedure Section 340(c).⁷ The year runs from when the statement first appears, which can become a contested issue with social media posts and online reviews.

Construction Defects

Latent construction defects fall under a statute of repose, which is an absolute outer deadline that runs regardless of when the defect is discovered. Code of Civil Procedure Section 337.15 bars any lawsuit filed more than ten years after substantial completion of the improvement. The ten-year clock starts at whichever comes first: the final public-agency inspection, recordation of a notice of completion, actual use or occupancy, or one year after work stops. Once ten years pass, the claim is dead even if the defect just surfaced, and tolling and discovery rules generally cannot override it.

Claims Against Government Entities

This is the deadline most likely to blindside people. Suing a California city, county, school district, or state agency requires first submitting a written administrative claim to the entity. Without that administrative claim, the court will dismiss your lawsuit.⁸

The administrative claim must be filed within six months of the incident for personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage. All other claims against a government entity must be filed within one year.⁹ Someone injured by a fall on a broken city sidewalk has six months, not two years. Missing that six-month window almost always kills the entire case.

Childhood Sexual Abuse

California eliminated the statute of limitations for childhood sexual assault claims arising from conduct on or after January 1, 2024. Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 340.1, survivors can sue the perpetrator and any person or entity whose wrongful, negligent, or intentional acts contributed to the abuse, with no filing deadline. For assaults that occurred before that date, the deadline is governed by the version of the law in effect on December 31, 2023, and anyone with an older claim should consult an attorney about which version applies.

Criminal Statutes of Limitations

The government’s power to prosecute faces its own deadlines, though the most serious offenses have none.

Misdemeanors

Prosecutors have one year from the date of the offense to file misdemeanor charges under Penal Code Section 802.¹⁰

Felonies

Most felonies carry a three-year window under Penal Code Section 801.¹¹ Felonies punishable by eight or more years in state prison get six years under Penal Code Section 800.¹²

No Time Limit

Penal Code Section 799 removes the statute of limitations for the most serious offenses. Murder and any other crime punishable by death or life imprisonment can be prosecuted at any time, no matter how many decades have passed. The same rule covers embezzlement of public money. Since 2017, California has also eliminated the limit for specified felony sex offenses, including rape and sexual abuse of a child.¹³

Discovery Rule for Financial Crimes

Penal Code Section 803(c) delays the criminal clock for felonies where fraud or breach of a fiduciary duty is a key element. The list includes grand theft, forgery, falsification of public records, bribery, welfare fraud, insurance fraud, and Medi-Cal fraud. For these crimes the clock does not start running until the offense is actually discovered.¹⁴ A quiet embezzlement scheme does not get a free pass just because no one caught on.

When the Clock Pauses or Starts Late

California recognizes several situations that can delay the start of a deadline or pause one already running.

The Discovery Rule

The most common reason a clock starts late is that the injured person did not yet know about the harm. California courts hold that a cause of action does not accrue until the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, the injury and its cause. Once a person has enough information to suspect wrongdoing and investigate, the clock starts, even if they do not yet know every detail. The rule is codified for fraud under Section 338(d)² and for medical malpractice under Section 340.5.⁶

Minors and Incapacitated Persons

Code of Civil Procedure Section 352 pauses the statute for plaintiffs who are under 18 or who lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs when the claim arises. The clock stays frozen until the person turns 18 or regains capacity.¹⁵ A child injured at age five does not lose the right to sue just because no adult filed on their behalf.

Imprisonment

Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 352.1, a person incarcerated when a civil cause of action accrues gets tolling of up to two years. The extension is capped at two years regardless of sentence length, and only people serving a term less than life qualify.

Active Military Service

The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act pauses the statute of limitations on any civil action by or against a person on active military duty. The entire period of service is excluded from the filing clock in every state and federal court and before state administrative agencies.¹⁶ The protection does not apply to IRS deadlines under the internal revenue code.

Equitable Tolling

When no specific statutory pause applies, courts can still extend a deadline through equitable tolling if the plaintiff shows diligent pursuit of their rights and some extraordinary circumstance beyond their control that prevented timely filing. Courts grant it sparingly.

Defendant Absent From California

Code of Civil Procedure Section 351 provides that time a defendant spends out of state does not count toward the statute of limitations. Modern courts have substantially narrowed this provision. The Ninth Circuit has ruled it unconstitutional as applied to interstate commerce cases, and the California Law Revision Commission has recommended its repeal.¹⁷ It also does not apply to corporations or limited partnerships. Relying on Section 351 to save an otherwise expired claim is risky.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

Filing even one day past the statute of limitations almost always ends the case. The defendant raises the deadline as an affirmative defense, and the court dismisses the claim regardless of its merits. The strength of your evidence, the clarity of the defendant’s liability, and the size of your damages all become irrelevant. If you are close to any deadline, especially the six-month government claim window, treat it as the hard cutoff it is and get a lawyer involved before the date, not after.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 – Two Years, Actions for Assault, Battery, or Injury to, or for Death of, Individual Caused by Wrongful Act or Neglect
2
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 338
3
CaseMine. California Code of Civil Procedure 337 – Of the Time of Commencing Civil Actions
4
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 339
5
Legal Information Institute. UCC 2-725 – Statute of Limitations in Contracts for Sale
6
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 340.5
7
Justia. CACI No. 1722 – Affirmative Defense – Statute of Limitations
8
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 945.4
9
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.2
10
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 802 – Limitation of Time for Commencement of Prosecution for Misdemeanors
11
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 801 – Prosecution for Felony
12
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 800
13
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 799
14
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 803
15
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 352
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3936 – Statute of Limitations
17
California Law Revision Commission. Tolling Statute of Limitations When Defendant Is Out of State