California’s statute of limitations by case type runs from as little as six months for claims against a government agency to no limit at all for murder and certain sex offenses. Most civil lawsuits fall between one and four years, and most criminal charges must be brought within one to six years. The deadline that catches people out most often is the six-month administrative claim required before you can sue any city, county, school district, or state agency.
Quick Reference: Common California Deadlines
- Personal injury and wrongful death: 2 years
- Medical malpractice: 1 year from discovery, 3 years maximum
- Property damage: 3 years
- Fraud: 3 years from discovery
- Written contract: 4 years
- Oral contract: 2 years
- Defamation (libel or slander): 1 year
- False imprisonment: 1 year
- Employment discrimination (state): 3 years to file with the Civil Rights Department
- Claim against a government entity: 6 months to file an administrative claim
- Most misdemeanors: 1 year
- Most felonies: 3 years (6 years for felonies punishable by 8+ years in prison)
- Murder, life-imprisonment offenses, embezzlement of public funds, many serious sex offenses: no limit
Personal Injury and Wrongful Death
You have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit in California. This covers car accidents, slip-and-fall incidents, dog bites, and any other situation where someone else’s carelessness caused you physical harm.1California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 335.1 The same two-year window applies to wrongful death claims brought by surviving family members. Miss it and the court will throw the case out, no matter how clear the liability.
Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice is tighter and more complicated. You must file within one year of discovering the injury, or three years from the date the injury actually happened, whichever comes first.2California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 340.5 – Action Against Health Care Provider The three-year outer limit is enforced strictly.3Justia. California Civil Jury Instructions (CACI) No. 556 – Affirmative Defense – Statute of Limitations – Medical Malpractice – Three-Year Limit
Three narrow exceptions can extend the three-year cap: fraud by the healthcare provider, intentional concealment of the malpractice, or a foreign object left inside the patient with no medical purpose.2California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 340.5 – Action Against Health Care Provider Outside those situations, three years is the ceiling even if you had no realistic way to know about the injury sooner.
Property Damage
Damage to your home, vehicle, land, or other property carries a three-year deadline from the date the damage occurred.4California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 338 – The Time of Commencing Actions Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property A car crash where your vehicle was wrecked but you escaped physical injury falls under this three-year window rather than the two-year personal injury rule.
Fraud
Fraud also carries a three-year deadline, but the clock starts on the date you discovered the fraud, not the date it occurred.4California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 338 – The Time of Commencing Actions Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property If someone tricked you into a bad contract five years ago and you only uncovered the deception last month, your three years started last month.
Courts still expect reasonable diligence. If obvious red flags sat in front of you for years and you ignored them, a judge may decide you should have discovered the fraud earlier.
Breach of Contract
Written contracts give you four years from the date of the breach.5California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 337 An oral or implied contract cuts that window to two years.6California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 339 – Action Upon Contract Not Founded Upon Instrument of Writing The shorter deadline for oral agreements reflects a practical reality: proving what two people verbally agreed to becomes harder with every passing month.
Defamation and False Imprisonment
Libel, slander, and false imprisonment claims each carry a one-year deadline from the date of the statement or incident. This is one of the shortest windows in California civil law, so anyone considering a defamation claim should seek legal advice quickly rather than waiting to see if the harm resolves on its own.
Employment Discrimination
California workers facing discrimination, harassment, or retaliation have three years to file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, counted from the last discriminatory act.7Civil Rights Department. Complaint Process A federal charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has to be filed within 300 calendar days of the discriminatory act, and once the EEOC issues a right-to-sue letter you have 90 days to bring a federal lawsuit. Equal Pay Act claims give you two years from the last discriminatory paycheck, or three years if the violation was willful.8U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits For Filing A Charge
Claims Against a Government Entity: The Six-Month Rule
This is where most people get blindsided. If your claim is against a city, county, state agency, public school district, or any other California government body, the normal civil deadlines do not apply. You must first file an administrative tort claim with the responsible agency within six months of the incident. Going straight to court is not an option.
Once the agency denies your claim or fails to respond within 45 days, you then have six months from the date of the written rejection notice to file the actual lawsuit. If the agency never sends a rejection notice, the lawsuit deadline extends to two years from the date of the incident.9California Legislative Information. California Government Code 945.6
Consider a pothole injury on a city street. Against a private party, you’d have two years. Against the city, you have six months to start the process. Miss that window and the case is dead regardless of how strong it is. If there’s any chance a government entity was involved in your injury, the administrative claim should be your first step.
Criminal Statutes of Limitations
Criminal deadlines determine how long prosecutors have to bring charges and vary with the severity of the offense.
Misdemeanors
Most misdemeanors must be charged within one year of the crime.10California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 802 – Time of Commencing Criminal Actions Petty theft, simple assault, and most low-level drug offenses fall here.
Felonies
Most felonies carry a three-year prosecution deadline.11Public.law. California Penal Code 801 Burglary, grand theft, and many drug felonies fit this window. Felonies punishable by eight or more years in prison carry a six-year deadline instead.
Offenses With No Time Limit
California sets no statute of limitations for its most serious offenses. Murder, any crime punishable by death or life imprisonment, and embezzlement of public funds can be prosecuted no matter how much time has passed. Since 2017, the state has also eliminated the time limit for many serious felony sex offenses, including rape and sexual abuse of a child.12California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 799
When the Clock Starts
The statute of limitations does not always begin on the date of the incident. California applies the discovery rule: the clock starts when you knew, or reasonably should have known, about your injury and its cause.13Justia. CACI No. 455 – Statute of Limitations – Delayed Discovery This matters for injuries that stay hidden. A defective product might cause slow internal damage. A contractor’s shoddy work might not reveal itself until a wall starts leaking years later.
The rule is not unlimited. Courts apply a reasonable diligence standard. If a reasonable person in your situation would have investigated and found the injury sooner, the clock started when that investigation should have happened, not when you actually got around to it.
When the Clock Pauses
Certain circumstances pause the statute of limitations, a concept called tolling. The clock stops during the tolling period and resumes when the condition ends. The most common tolling situations in California:
- Minors: if the injured person is under 18, the clock is generally paused until they turn 18. A child injured at age 10 in a personal injury case would have until age 20 to file.
- Mental incapacity: the clock pauses while the injured person lacks the mental capacity to manage their own affairs.
- Defendant out of state: any time the person you need to sue spends outside California does not count toward the deadline.
- Imprisonment: certain tolling provisions apply while a potential plaintiff is incarcerated.
Tolling can extend a deadline substantially, but it does not apply across the board. Medical malpractice has a three-year hard cap that most tolling provisions cannot override.3Justia. California Civil Jury Instructions (CACI) No. 556 – Affirmative Defense – Statute of Limitations – Medical Malpractice – Three-Year Limit
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
In a civil case, missing the statute of limitations doesn’t technically stop you from filing. You can still submit the paperwork. The defendant will raise the expired deadline as a defense, and the court will dismiss the case.14California Courts. Deadlines to Sue Someone No judge has discretion to overlook an expired deadline because the claim has merit.
In criminal cases, an expired statute of limitations is an absolute bar. Charges cannot be filed at all once the deadline has passed.
If you think you have a legal claim of any kind, check the applicable deadline before anything else. Evidence gathering, settlement talks, and finding the right attorney all take time, and the most expensive mistake in civil litigation is assuming you have more time than you actually do.