Minnesota Personal Injury Statute of Limitations: Six-Year Rule

The Minnesota personal injury statute of limitations is six years for most claims, but several categories carry much shorter deadlines. Medical malpractice gives you four years. Product liability also runs four years. Assault, battery, false imprisonment, libel, and slander must be filed within two, as must dram shop claims against a bar or liquor store. Claims against a city, county, or other government body require a written notice within 180 days, long before the underlying lawsuit deadline runs. Miss the deadline that applies to your claim and you lose the right to sue, no matter how strong the case.

The Six-Year Default

Under Minn. Stat. § 541.05, most negligence-based personal injury claims in Minnesota must be filed within six years of the injury.¹ This covers car accidents, slip-and-fall incidents, bicycle collisions, and similar situations where someone’s carelessness caused you harm. The six years starts on the date you were hurt, not the date you understood the full extent of the damage.

Dog bite claims fall into the same six-year window. Minnesota holds dog owners strictly liable when their animal attacks someone, so you don’t have to prove negligence, but the claim is still treated as a personal injury rather than a product liability action and keeps the longer deadline.

Shorter Deadlines by Claim Type

Four Years: Medical Malpractice

Claims against doctors, hospitals, dentists, and other healthcare providers must be filed within four years from the date the cause of action accrued, under Minn. Stat. § 541.076.² Accrual usually means the date the malpractice occurred. When the injury wasn’t immediately apparent, courts may look at when the patient knew or should have known about the harm.

Minor patients face tighter tolling than other injured children. The suspension of the clock can’t extend the filing deadline by more than seven years, and no more than one year after the child turns 18.³ Parents of children injured by medical care should treat the clock as running sooner, not later.

Four Years: Product Liability

Injuries caused by a defective product get four years, not six. Minnesota carves product-based strict liability claims out of the general personal injury statute.⁴ This includes defective auto parts, contaminated food, and malfunctioning tools or equipment.

Two Years: Assault, Battery, and Related Torts

Assault, battery, false imprisonment, libel, and slander carry a two-year statute of limitations under Minn. Stat. § 541.07.⁵ One exception matters: when the conduct also qualifies as domestic abuse under Minnesota law, the deadline extends to six years under § 541.05.¹

Two Years: Dram Shop Claims

If a bar, restaurant, or liquor store illegally served the person who injured you, a dram shop claim under the Minnesota Civil Damage Act must be filed within two years. The trap sits inside that window. Your attorney must send written notice to the liquor establishment within 240 days of the date you hired that attorney, identifying who was served, when and where the injury occurred, and who was hurt. Skip the notice and the claim is barred even if the two-year lawsuit deadline hasn’t run.⁶

Wrongful Death

When an injury causes death, Minn. Stat. § 573.02 generally requires the lawsuit to be filed within three years of the date of death, and in any case within six years of the act or omission that caused the injury.⁷ Both deadlines run at the same time. If the person survived four years after the accident before dying from related complications, only two years remain under the outer limit.

For a wrongful death caused by medical malpractice, the three-year-from-death deadline still applies, but the outer boundary is the four-year malpractice limit instead of six years.⁷ Wrongful death caused by murder has no time limit.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse claims follow their own rules under Minn. Stat. § 541.073. If the victim was under 18 at the time of the abuse, there is no statute of limitations for a claim against the person who committed it. The victim can file at any age.⁸

Adult victims have six years from the date of the abuse. Claims against institutions on vicarious liability or respondeat superior theories also run six years, and when the victim was a minor, the vicarious liability claim must be filed before the plaintiff turns 24.⁸ A survivor at 40 could still sue the individual abuser directly, but a claim against the employer or organization that enabled the abuse would likely be time-barred.

Government Claims Need Notice Within 180 Days

Suing a city, county, school district, or other Minnesota government body for personal injury requires written notice to the governing body within 180 days of discovering the injury. The notice must describe when, where, and how the injury happened, name any government employees involved, and state the amount of compensation demanded.⁹ For wrongful death, the notice deadline is one year.

The 180-day notice sits on top of the underlying statute of limitations. You still have to file within the applicable period (six years for negligence, two years for intentional torts, and so on), but missing the notice window kills the claim before you ever get to court. If a government entity or employee was involved in your injury, treat the real deadline as 180 days.

When the Clock Starts

For most personal injury claims in Minnesota, the statute of limitations starts the day the injury occurs. The state generally follows an occurrence rule, so the clock runs whether or not you know the full extent of your harm. A car accident victim’s six years begins on the day of the crash, even if the worst symptoms surface months later.

The discovery rule applies narrowly. Fraud-based claims accrue when the injured party discovers the facts constituting the fraud.¹ Courts have also applied discovery principles in limited situations such as latent injuries from toxic exposure. For ordinary negligence claims, assume the clock started the day you were hurt.

Filing on Time Means Serving, Not Filing

Minnesota has an unusual rule that catches people off guard. A lawsuit is officially “commenced” when the summons is served on the defendant, not when papers are filed with the court.¹⁰ To stop the clock, you must get the summons into the defendant’s hands (or deliver it to the sheriff for service) before the statute of limitations expires. A drafted but unserved complaint doesn’t count.

After commencing the action by service, you then have one year to file the case with the court. Miss that year and the action is automatically dismissed with prejudice, which means you can’t refile.¹⁰ Serve first to stop the clock, then file within a year. Reversing that order can cost you the case.

When the Clock Pauses

Minnesota law suspends the statute of limitations in certain situations. Under § 541.15, the clock is paused when the injured person is under 18, is experiencing a mental or cognitive disability, is an alien whose country is at war with the United States, or is prevented from suing by an injunction or other court order.³

The tolling has limits. For minors, there is no cap on the suspension itself, so the full statute of limitations runs from the child’s 18th birthday (except in medical malpractice, which carries the seven-year ceiling noted above). For other disabilities, the suspension cannot extend the deadline by more than five years, and in no case by more than one year after the disability ends.³

Section 541.13 addresses defendants who leave Minnesota. If the person you need to sue is outside the state and can’t be served under Minnesota’s laws, the time they’re absent doesn’t count toward the statute of limitations.¹¹ Modern long-arm statutes make this less important than it once was, but it still matters when a defendant disappears or can’t be located despite a diligent search.

A Note for Car Accident Victims

The six-year deadline for a car accident claim doesn’t guarantee you can sue. Minnesota’s no-fault system requires you to clear a tort threshold before suing an at-fault driver for pain and suffering or other non-economic damages: medical expenses over $4,000 (excluding diagnostic x-rays and rehabilitative training), permanent injury, permanent disfigurement, disability lasting 60 days or more, or death.¹² If none applies, your remedy is limited to no-fault benefits from your own insurer, and the limitations period is beside the point.

1
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 541.05 – Various Cases, Six Years
2
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 541.076 – Health Care Provider Actions
3
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 541.15 – Periods of Disability Not Counted
4
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 541.05 – Various Cases, Six Years – Section: Subdivision 2
5
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 541.07 – Two- or Three-Year Limitations
6
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 340A.802 – Notice Requirements; Limitations
7
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 573.02 – Action for Death by Wrongful Act; Survival of Actions
8
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 541.073 – Actions for Damages Due to Sexual Abuse; Special Provisions
9
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 466.05 – Exceptions; Notice
10
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Court Rules – Civil Procedure – Rule 3.01
11
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 541 – Limitation of Time, Commencing Actions – Section: 541.13
12
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 65B.51 – Deduction of Collateral Benefits From Tort Recovery; Limitation on Right to Recover Damages