Indiana Statute of Limitations: Deadlines by Case Type and Tolling

The Indiana statute of limitations sets how long you have to file a lawsuit or bring criminal charges, and the deadline turns on what kind of case it is. Personal injury claims run out in two years. Most felonies must be charged within five. Contract disputes range from four to ten years depending on whether the deal was written, oral, or covered a sale of goods. Miss the deadline by a day and the case is almost always over.

Indiana Deadlines at a Glance

Murder: no time limit
Most felonies: 5 years
Misdemeanors: 2 years
Personal injury and personal property damage: 2 years
Wrongful death: 2 years from date of death
Medical malpractice: 2 years from the malpractice
Written contracts: 10 years
Oral contracts: 6 years
Sale of goods (UCC): 4 years
Real property damage: 6 years
Fraud: 6 years
Product liability: 2 years, with a 10-year statute of repose

Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

You have two years from the date the cause of action accrues to file a personal injury lawsuit in Indiana. That covers injuries to your body or reputation and damage to personal property like a vehicle.¹ The clock usually starts on the date of the accident, whether that’s a car crash, a fall, or an assault. A discovery rule can apply where you couldn’t reasonably have known you were injured; in that case the two years may run from when you discovered or should have discovered the harm.

Wrongful death claims get the same two years, but the clock starts on the date of death rather than the date of the injury that caused it. Only the personal representative of the deceased person’s estate can file.² Appointing that representative through probate takes time, and it has to happen before the suit can proceed.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice claims run two years from the date of the alleged malpractice, not from when you noticed the problem.³ A surgical error or misdiagnosis can sit undetected while the clock keeps running.

Claims against qualified healthcare providers have to go through a medical review panel before you can sue. Filing a proposed complaint with the Indiana Department of Insurance tolls the statute of limitations for up to 90 days after you receive the panel’s opinion.³ A child under six at the time of the malpractice has until their eighth birthday to file, even if the standard two years would have already run out.

Contract Disputes

The contract deadline depends on the type of agreement.

Written Contracts

Actions on written contracts must be filed within ten years after the cause of action accrues.⁴ That’s one of the longest civil windows in Indiana law.

Oral Contracts

Oral contracts and unwritten accounts get six years.⁵

Sale of Goods

Contracts for the sale of goods fall under Indiana’s version of the Uniform Commercial Code and carry a four-year deadline.⁶ The parties can shorten this by agreement to as little as one year, but they cannot extend it past four. A breach of warranty claim generally accrues when the seller delivers the product, not when you find the defect, unless the warranty explicitly covers future performance.

Property Damage

Damage to personal property, like a wrecked car or destroyed electronics, follows the same two-year deadline as personal injury.¹ Damage to real property, meaning land or structures, gets six years.⁵

Fraud

Fraud claims must be filed within six years.⁵ Where a defendant actively concealed the wrongdoing, Indiana courts have recognized that the clock may not start until the victim discovered or should have discovered the fraud through reasonable diligence.

Product Liability

Product liability has two deadlines and you have to satisfy both. First, the lawsuit must be filed within two years of when the cause of action accrues, meaning when the injury happened or was discovered.⁷

Second, Indiana imposes a ten-year statute of repose measured from the date the product was first delivered to a user or consumer. Once ten years pass from delivery, the claim is barred even if the injury just happened.⁷ There’s a narrow exception: if the injury occurs between eight and ten years after delivery, you still get the full two years from accrual to file. And if a manufacturer’s express warranty runs past ten years, the statute of repose won’t bar claims during the warranty period.

Criminal Charges

Murder has no statute of limitations in Indiana. Charges can be filed decades later, and certain other serious felonies, including some Level 1 offenses, also have no filing deadline under Indiana Code 35-41-4-2.⁸

Most other felonies must be charged within five years of the offense.⁸ That covers theft, burglary, drug offenses, and assault, among others. For certain sex crimes, the five-year period can be extended when DNA evidence identifies a suspect after the original deadline has passed.

Misdemeanors carry a two-year statute of limitations, and infractions follow the same two-year rule.⁸

When the Clock Pauses

Several circumstances can pause or extend Indiana’s limitation periods.

Minors and Incapacitated Persons

If a person is under a legal disability when the cause of action arises, Indiana allows them to file within two years after the disability is removed.⁹ “Legal disability” includes being under 18 or mentally incapacitated. A child injured at age 10 could potentially file until age 20. For a person with a mental incapacity, the two-year window opens once the incapacity ends. This tolling applies across most civil claim types. Medical malpractice, however, has its own rule for young children, described above.

Defendant Leaves Indiana

When a defendant is absent from Indiana, the time spent out of state does not count toward the limitations period.¹⁰ The clock freezes until the defendant returns or otherwise becomes available for service of process. An exception applies if the defendant keeps a registered agent for service in Indiana, since you can still reach them that way.

Active-Duty Military

Under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, time spent on active military duty is excluded from any state statute of limitations, whether the servicemember is suing or being sued.¹¹ The protection covers state court lawsuits and state agency proceedings. It does not apply to federal tax matters.

Federal Claims That Borrow the Indiana Deadline

Some federal claims don’t have their own statute of limitations and use the state’s instead. Section 1983 civil rights claims, for example, borrow Indiana’s personal injury deadline, so you have two years to sue over alleged constitutional violations by government officials.¹ Federal law, not state law, controls when that clock starts: the point when you knew or should have known about the violation.

Claims against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act follow their own timeline. You have to submit a written claim to the responsible agency within two years, then file suit within six months of a denial.¹² Those deadlines override Indiana’s when you’re suing a federal entity.

If you’re anywhere near a deadline and unsure whether a tolling rule or exception applies, filing sooner is the safer move. Courts almost always dismiss late cases, whatever the reason.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-2-4 Injury or Forfeiture of Penalty Actions
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-23-1-1
3
Indiana Department of Insurance. Filing a Medical Malpractice Complaint
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-2-11 Written Contract Actions
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-2-7 Six Year Limitation
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 26-1-2-725 Statute of Limitations in Contracts for Sale
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-20-3-1 Negligence and Strict Liability in Tort Actions
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-41-4-2 Periods of Limitation
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-6-1 Legal Disabilities Accrual of Action
10
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-11-4-1 Tolling of Time While Nonresident
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 U.S. Code 3936 – Statute of Limitations
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States