Discrimination Statute of Limitations in California: State and Federal

In California, you generally have three years from the last discriminatory act to file a complaint with the state Civil Rights Department (CRD) under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), but only 300 days to file a charge with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).¹² The discrimination statute of limitations in California isn’t a single rule, though. Different deadlines apply depending on whether you go state or federal, whether you work for a federal agency, and what stage of the process you’re in. Miss any of them and the case can be over before a court ever sees it.

The Three-Year State Deadline

Most California workers file under FEHA, which runs through the CRD (formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing). You have three years from the date discrimination last occurred to submit an intake form.¹ Filing with the CRD isn’t optional if you want to sue: before you can take a FEHA claim to court, you must either go through the agency’s investigation process or request a right-to-sue notice.³

FEHA’s anti-discrimination provisions apply to employers with five or more employees. Its anti-harassment protections cover every workplace, regardless of size.⁴ Once the three-year window closes, the state-level claim is gone, no matter how strong the evidence.

The 300-Day Federal Deadline

Federal discrimination claims under Title VII and related laws are handled by the EEOC. The baseline charge-filing deadline is 180 days, but because California has its own enforcement agency, that stretches to 300 days from the discriminatory act.² Even extended, 300 days closes long before the state’s three-year window, so it’s easy to preserve a FEHA claim and accidentally forfeit the federal one.

The two agencies have a worksharing agreement. A complaint filed with the CRD that also falls under federal law is normally dual-filed with the EEOC automatically.⁵⁶ One important exception: if you ask the CRD for an immediate right-to-sue instead of using its investigation process, the CRD will not forward your complaint to the EEOC. You’d need to contact the EEOC yourself to protect the federal claim.⁷

When the Clock Starts

The statute of limitations begins on the date the discriminatory act occurs. For a firing, that’s the termination date. For a denied promotion, it’s the day the decision took effect. For harassment, the clock starts on the last day the conduct took place.

Pay discrimination follows a separate rule. Under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, each paycheck that reflects a discriminatory pay decision counts as a new violation and restarts the filing deadline.² A salary set discriminatorily three years ago can still support a claim today if you’re still receiving paychecks tied to that decision.

California also allows a narrow delayed-discovery extension. If you first learn the facts of the unlawful practice within 90 days after the three-year window has already closed, you can get up to another 90 days to file.¹ This isn’t a safety net for anyone who suspected something but didn’t look into it. You have to show you had no reasonable way to know earlier.

Exceptions That Can Extend the Deadline

Continuing Violation Doctrine

When an employer engages in an ongoing pattern of related discriminatory acts, and at least one of those acts falls inside the filing window, the continuing violation doctrine can bring the whole course of conduct into the case, including acts that would otherwise be too old. Courts ask whether the individual incidents are related enough to count as a single unlawful practice rather than separate events. Hostile work environment claims are the clearest fit, since no single comment or incident may be actionable on its own but the cumulative pattern is.

Equitable Tolling

Equitable tolling pauses the clock when fairness requires it. In California, this most often comes up when you’re pursuing an administrative remedy in parallel: if you’ve filed with the EEOC and are waiting for its investigation, the FEHA period may be tolled so you aren’t forced to run two proceedings at once on identical facts. Tolling can also apply when an employer actively misleads you about the real reason for an adverse action, keeping you from recognizing the discrimination in time. Courts decide these case by case, and tolling is never automatic.

Deadlines After a Right-to-Sue Notice

Filing with the CRD or EEOC isn’t the end of the clock. Before you can sue, you need a right-to-sue notice from the relevant agency, and that notice starts its own, much shorter deadline.

After a CRD Notice

When you file with the CRD, you can let the agency investigate or request an immediate right-to-sue and head straight to court.³⁸⁷

After an EEOC Notice

Federal law is far less forgiving. Once the EEOC issues a right-to-sue notice, whether after investigating or dismissing the charge, you have 90 days to file a lawsuit in federal court.² You can request the notice before the EEOC finishes its work, but the agency will only grant that if it decides it cannot complete the investigation within 180 days.⁹ If the notice shows up on a Friday and sits in a pile over the weekend, the 90 days has already begun to run. Missing it ends the federal case.

Different Deadlines for Federal Employees

If you work for a federal agency, none of the above timelines apply to you. You cannot file an EEOC charge the way private workers do. You have to contact an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor at your own agency within 45 days of the discriminatory event.¹⁰ That 45-day deadline is the tightest in employment discrimination law.

If counseling ends without a resolution, you then have 15 days from the date you receive your counselor’s notice to file a formal complaint with the agency’s EEO office.¹⁰ Federal workers who assume the three-year FEHA window or the 300-day EEOC window applies to them often learn the truth too late.

Why the Choice Between State and Federal Claims Matters

The deadlines aren’t just procedural. They decide what kind of recovery stays available. Under federal law, combined compensatory and punitive damages for intentional discrimination are capped by employer size:¹¹

15–100 employees: $50,000
101–200 employees: $100,000
201–500 employees: $200,000
More than 500 employees: $300,000

FEHA has no equivalent cap. California does not limit compensatory or punitive damages in employment discrimination cases, so a state-court FEHA verdict can be substantially larger than a federal Title VII verdict for identical conduct. That advantage only survives if you filed with the CRD within three years and got into court within one year of the right-to-sue notice.⁸

Key Deadlines at a Glance

CRD complaint under FEHA: 3 years from the last discriminatory act
EEOC charge: 300 days from the discriminatory act
Federal employee EEO counselor contact: 45 days from the discriminatory act
Federal employee formal complaint: 15 days after receiving counselor’s notice
Lawsuit after a CRD right-to-sue notice: 1 year
Lawsuit after an EEOC right-to-sue notice: 90 days

Every deadline on this list is rigid. Because the 300-day federal window closes well before the three-year state window, filing with both the CRD and EEOC early, rather than waiting, is the safest way to keep every form of relief on the table.

1
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12960
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 2000e-5 – Enforcement Provisions
3
Civil Rights Department. Complaint Process
4
California Civil Rights Department. Employment Discrimination
5
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 2 Section 10019 – Complaints Dual-Filed With the EEOC
6
California Civil Rights Department. Worksharing Agreement Between State of California Civil Rights Department and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
7
Civil Rights Department. Obtain a Right to Sue
8
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12965
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Overview of Federal Sector EEO Complaint Process
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment