Massachusetts Statute of Limitations: Civil, Criminal, and Tolling

The Massachusetts statute of limitations sets a filing deadline for nearly every civil lawsuit and criminal prosecution in the state, and missing it usually ends the case for good. Most civil claims must be filed within three years of the event that caused the harm. Most criminal charges must be brought within six years. Murder has no deadline, some sex offenses have none or a 15-year window, and a long list of exceptions can shorten, extend, or pause those clocks depending on the claim, the defendant, and the person who was injured.

Civil Filing Deadlines by Claim Type

The civil deadline depends entirely on what kind of claim you are bringing.

General tort claims, including personal injury: three years from when the cause of action accrues.¹
Defamation (libel and slander): three years.²
Assault and battery and false imprisonment: three years.²
Legal or medical malpractice: three years from when you discover, or reasonably should have discovered, the harm, capped at seven years from the act itself.²
Contract disputes: six years from the breach.³
Wrongful death: three years from the date of death, or three years from when the executor or administrator discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the basis for a claim, whichever gives more time.⁴
Construction defects on real property: three years from discovery, capped at six years from when the improvement was opened for use or substantially completed.⁵
Sexual abuse of a minor: 35 years from when the victim turns 18, or seven years from when the victim discovered (or should have discovered) the emotional or mental harm, whichever gives more time.⁶

The three-year window covers most injury claims, and it goes faster than people expect. Medical treatment stretches out, insurance negotiations drag, and a case that looked simple at month six can look complicated at month thirty. Treat the deadline as immovable and work backward.

When the Clock Actually Starts

The date on your accident report is not always the date the statute of limitations begins to run. Massachusetts uses a discovery rule: a cause of action accrues when you discover, or with reasonable diligence should have discovered, that you were harmed, that someone else caused it, and who that person was.⁷

The rule matters most in medical malpractice and toxic exposure cases, where an injury can stay hidden for years. It is not a blank check. Courts ask whether you exercised reasonable diligence, and if the information was available and you did not look, the clock started when you should have looked.

Statutes of Repose: The Hard Outer Limit

A statute of repose runs from the defendant’s conduct rather than from your discovery of the injury, and no tolling rule extends it. Massachusetts applies a seven-year repose to medical malpractice and a six-year repose to construction defect claims.²⁵

The practical consequence is harsh. A repose period can bar a claim before you know you have been injured. If a surgical error in 2018 does not produce symptoms until 2026, the seven-year cap gave you only until 2025. Narrow exceptions exist, including the case of a foreign object left in the body that was not intended for any medical purpose, but they rarely apply.

Criminal Prosecution Deadlines

Criminal deadlines run off a single statute, and the framework is simpler than the civil side. Severity and offense type set the window.

Murder

Murder has no statute of limitations. An indictment can be returned at any time after the victim’s death.⁸

Sexual Offenses

Several of the most serious sex crimes, including indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, rape of a child, and human trafficking for sexual servitude, have no statute of limitations. Other sexual offenses, including rape and indecent assault and battery, carry a 15-year period.⁸

When the victim was under 16 at the time of the offense, the limitations period does not begin until the victim turns 16 or reports the crime to law enforcement, whichever happens first.⁸

Every Other Crime

For any crime other than murder and the designated sex offenses, the limitations period is six years. That applies to felonies and misdemeanors alike unless a more specific statute says otherwise.⁸

What Pauses the Clock

Several situations pause a limitations period or push its start date. This is where seemingly late claims survive, and where defendants who assumed they were safe find out they are not.

The Defendant Was Out of State

If the person you need to sue lives outside Massachusetts when your claim arises, the clock does not start until they enter the state. If they leave after the claim accrues, time spent outside the state does not count. One limit: you cannot revive a claim already barred under the law of whatever state the defendant was living in by waiting for them to cross the border.⁹

Minors and Incapacitated Persons

If you are a minor or mentally incapacitated when your right to sue arises, the limitations period does not begin until the disability is removed. For minors, that means age 18. For someone with a mental illness, it means regaining the ability to manage their affairs.¹⁰ A 10-year-old injured in a car accident has until age 21 to file a personal injury claim, no matter how obvious the injury was.

Fraudulent Concealment

When a defendant actively hides the facts that would reveal your claim, the limitations period can be tolled. The doctrine requires that the defendant suppressed a material fact, knew about it, and intended to mislead you. Silence alone is not enough. The defendant must have taken an affirmative step to prevent discovery, and you must show you could not have uncovered the facts through reasonable effort on your own.

Active Military Service

Federal law applies here as well. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, time on active duty does not count toward any state civil limitations period, whether the servicemember is the plaintiff or the defendant.¹¹ Federal tax claims are excluded; everything else is covered.

Bankruptcy

When a defendant files for bankruptcy, an automatic stay blocks most lawsuits. Federal law makes sure that pause does not eat your deadline. If the limitations period has not expired when the bankruptcy case begins, you get at least 30 days after the stay lifts to file or resume.¹²

Claims Against a City, Town, or the Commonwealth

Suing a public entity in Massachusetts follows an extra step that trips people up. Before filing a lawsuit under the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act, you must submit a written claim to the executive officer of the public entity within two years of when the cause of action arose.¹³

Presentment is separate from the statute of limitations and is a prerequisite to suit. Skip it and your case will be dismissed even if you file within the three-year tort window. The entity then has six months to respond in writing. If it denies the claim or does not respond, you can file suit.¹³

Claims involving sexual abuse of a minor are exempt from the presentment requirement.¹³

What Happens If You File Late

A civil lawsuit filed after the limitations period has expired is vulnerable to a motion to dismiss, and courts grant those motions routinely. The dismissal is typically with prejudice, so you cannot refile. Judges have almost no discretion to override an expired deadline unless a tolling provision applies. Being a few days late is the same as being a year late.

On the criminal side, an expired limitations period is an absolute bar to prosecution. If charges are brought after the deadline, the defendant can move to dismiss, and the court must grant the motion. Criminal deadlines are treated as hard cutoffs.

1
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 260 Section 2A – Tort, Contract to Recover for Personal Injuries, and Replevin Actions
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 260 Section 4 – Three Years in Certain Tort or Contract Actions
3
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 260 Section 2 – Contract Actions; Actions Upon Judgments or Decrees of Courts of Record
4
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 229 Section 2 – Wrongful Death Actions
5
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 260 Section 2B – Tort Actions Arising From Improvements to Real Property
6
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Law About Child Sexual Abuse and Statutes of Limitations
7
Justia. Harrington v. Costello, 2014 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
8
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 277 Section 63 – Limitation of Criminal Prosecutions
9
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 260 Section 9 – Absence From the Commonwealth
10
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 260 Section 7 – Minors and Incapacitated Persons
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 U.S. Code 3936 – Statute of Limitations
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 108 – Extension of Time
13
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 258 Section 4 – Presentment of Claims