The DC statute of limitations sets how long you have to file a civil lawsuit or how long prosecutors have to bring criminal charges in the District, and the answer depends entirely on the type of case. Most civil claims run three years and most felonies run six, but the range stretches from a one-year window for defamation and assault to no time limit at all for murder, incest, and every degree of sexual abuse. Miss the deadline by a day and DC courts will almost always dismiss the case, no matter how strong the evidence.
Civil Filing Deadlines by Claim Type
DC Code § 12-301 sets the filing windows for nearly every civil action in the District. The clock starts when the right to sue accrues, which usually means the date the harm happened or the contract was breached.1D.C. Law Library. DC Code 12-301 – Limitation of Time for Bringing Actions
- Property damage, real or personal: three years.
- Recovery of personal property someone is unlawfully holding: three years.
- Simple written or oral contracts: three years.
- Sealed instruments (formal contracts executed under seal, common in high-value corporate transactions and certain debt instruments): twelve years.
- Defamation, meaning libel or slander: one year.
- Assault, battery, wounding, malicious prosecution, false arrest, and false imprisonment: one year.
- Statutory penalties: one year.
- Executor or administrator bonds: five years.
- Toxic substance property damage, including asbestos claims: five years from when the injury is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.
- Recovery of land: fifteen years.
- Any action not covered by a more specific provision: three years.
The catch-all three-year rule is where most general negligence claims land, including car accidents and slip-and-fall injuries. Watch the distinction between negligence and intentional torts: if someone deliberately hit you, that is battery, and you have one year, not three.
Wrongful Death
A wrongful death action must be filed by the personal representative of the deceased within two years of the date of death. The clock runs from the death itself, not from the underlying injury.2D.C. Law Library. DC Code Chapter 27 – Negligence Causing Death
Only a personal representative can bring the claim. If none has been appointed, the family has to get one through probate before filing, and the two-year clock does not pause while that happens.
Sexual Abuse Civil Claims
DC gives survivors of sexual abuse much longer to file than the standard three-year rule would allow. The applicable window depends on how old the victim was at the time of the abuse.1D.C. Law Library. DC Code 12-301 – Limitation of Time for Bringing Actions
- Victim under 35 at the time of the abuse: until age 40, or five years from when the victim knew or reasonably should have known of the abuse, whichever comes later.
- Victim 35 or older at the time of the abuse: five years from the date of the abuse, or five years from when the victim knew or reasonably should have known, whichever is later.
These extended windows apply even if the standard catch-all deadline has long since passed.
Sale of Goods Contracts
Ordinary contract claims follow the three-year simple-contract rule, and sealed instruments get twelve years. Contracts for the sale of goods follow a different rule under the Uniform Commercial Code as adopted in DC: four years from when the breach occurs, not when it is discovered. The parties can agree in the original contract to shorten that period to as little as one year, but they cannot extend it. The one wrinkle: if a warranty explicitly covers future performance of the goods, the deadline runs from when the breach is or should have been discovered.3D.C. Law Library. DC Code 28:2-725 – Statute of Limitations in Contracts for Sale
Claims Against the DC Government
Suing the District of Columbia comes with an early hurdle that runs much faster than the statute of limitations. Before you can file a lawsuit for personal injury or property damage against the DC government, you must give written notice to the Mayor within six months of the incident. The notice has to describe the approximate time, place, cause, and circumstances of the injury or damage. A Metropolitan Police report filed in the ordinary course of duty counts as sufficient notice.4D.C. Law Library. DC Code 12-309 – Actions Against District of Columbia for Unliquidated Damages
You could still be well within the three-year negligence window and lose your claim entirely because no written notice reached the Mayor’s office in six months.
Criminal Prosecution Deadlines
DC Code § 23-113 controls how long prosecutors have to bring charges. The clock starts when the crime is committed and stops when an indictment or information is filed.5D.C. Law Library. DC Code 23-113 – Limitations on Actions for Criminal Violations
Misdemeanors and Felonies
Most misdemeanors must be charged within three years. Felonies generally get six years.
Offenses With No Time Limit
DC’s list of crimes that can be prosecuted at any time is broader than most people expect:
- First degree murder, second degree murder, and murder of a law enforcement officer or public safety employee.
- First or second degree murder constituting an act of terrorism, and murder of a law enforcement officer constituting an act of terrorism.
- All four degrees of sexual abuse, both degrees of child sexual abuse, both degrees of sexual abuse of a minor, both degrees of sexual abuse of a secondary education student, and both degrees of sexual abuse of a ward, patient, client, or prisoner.
- Incest.
A fourth-degree sexual abuse charge can be brought decades later just as readily as a murder charge.
Fraud and Public Corruption
Fraud cases and offenses involving breach of fiduciary trust get a discovery-based extension. If the standard felony or misdemeanor deadline has already run, prosecutors can still bring charges within three years of when the fraud was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. The hard caps are nine years total for a felony and six years total for a misdemeanor. The same extended discovery rule applies to offenses based on the official conduct of a public officer or employee, measured from three years after the official leaves office.
Federal Deadlines That Overlap in DC
Because DC is a federal district, several federal deadlines regularly come into play alongside local ones.
Federal Crimes
Federal non-capital offenses carry a general five-year statute of limitations under 18 U.S.C. § 3282, shorter than DC’s six-year window for local felonies. Federal prosecutors must secure an indictment or file an information within five years unless a specific federal statute says otherwise.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Offenses Not Capital
Federal Tort Claims Act
If a federal employee acting within the scope of their job injures you, you cannot sue directly. You must first file an administrative claim with the responsible agency within two years of the incident. If the agency denies your claim, you have six months from the date the denial letter is mailed to file suit in federal court. If the agency does not respond within six months, you can treat that silence as a denial and file suit at any time afterward.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
Employment Discrimination
Private-sector workers in DC generally have 300 days to file a charge with the EEOC, because the DC Office of Human Rights enforces local anti-discrimination laws and functions as a Fair Employment Practices agency. Without that local agency, the federal default would be 180 days. For ongoing harassment, the deadline runs from the last incident.8U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
Federal employees face a much tighter timeline. They must contact their agency’s EEO counselor within 45 days of the discriminatory act, or within 45 days of when they reasonably became aware of it.
What Pauses the Clock
Several doctrines can delay or suspend a statute of limitations in DC. Most shift when the clock starts rather than lengthen the period itself.
The Discovery Rule
The limitations period normally starts when the harm occurs, not when you learn of it. The discovery rule delays the start until you knew or reasonably should have known about the injury and its cause. It comes up most often in medical malpractice, where a surgical error or misdiagnosis may not produce symptoms for months or years. DC’s toxic substance provision builds the discovery rule directly into the statute, giving five years from the date the damage is discovered or should have been discovered.
Minors, Mental Incapacity, and Imprisonment
DC Code § 12-302 pauses the limitations clock for three categories of plaintiffs.9D.C. Law Library. DC Code 12-302 – Disability of Plaintiff
- Minors: if you are under 18 when the injury happens, the clock does not start until you turn 18.
- Mental incapacity: if you lack the capacity to manage your own affairs when the claim arises, the deadline is suspended until the incapacity ends.
- Imprisonment: if you are incarcerated when the claim accrues, the period is tolled until you are released.
The full statutory period then runs from the date the disability is removed. A child injured at age 10 in a negligence case would have until age 21 to file, three years after turning 18.
Absent or Evading Defendants
When a defendant leaves the District or hides to avoid being served, the court can pause the limitations clock so the defendant does not benefit from being unavailable. Once the defendant is located or returns, the countdown resumes from where it stopped. The same principle applies in criminal cases under federal law, where a fugitive’s time on the run does not count toward the statute of limitations.
Active-Duty Military Service
Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, time spent on active military duty cannot be counted toward any statute of limitations. The tolling is automatic; the servicemember does not have to prove that military service actually prevented filing. The protection applies to both local and federal deadlines but does not extend to tax-related deadlines under the Internal Revenue Code.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3936 – Statute of Limitations