The Pennsylvania statute of limitations varies by case type: two years for most personal injury and property damage claims, four years for contract disputes and most debt collection, one year for defamation, and six years as a catch-all for civil claims that don’t fit elsewhere. Criminal deadlines range from two years for minor offenses to no limit at all for murder and certain sex crimes against children. Miss the deadline and, in almost every case, you lose the right to bring the claim.
Civil Filing Deadlines
The clock generally starts on the date of the injury or breach. A few claims get a later starting point under the discovery rule, covered further down.
Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, and Medical Malpractice
You have two years to file a personal injury lawsuit — car crash, slip and fall, or any other harm caused by someone else’s carelessness.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5524 – Two Year Limitation Wrongful death also gets two years, measured from the date of death rather than the underlying injury.
Medical malpractice runs on the same two-year deadline, but the starting point can shift if you didn’t know about the injury right away. Pennsylvania also imposes a seven-year statute of repose on malpractice claims, meaning the outer boundary for filing is generally seven years from the negligent act regardless of when the harm is discovered.
Property Damage
Claims for damage to real property, including trespass and waste, must be filed within two years. The same two-year window applies to personal property that was taken, detained, or damaged.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5524 – Two Year Limitation
Contracts and Debt Collection
Breach of contract claims get four years, whether the agreement was oral or written.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5525 – Four Year Limitation The clock runs from the date of the breach. Written contracts do not get a longer window under Pennsylvania law.
Creditors generally have four years from the date of the last payment to sue on an unpaid debt. A partial payment or written acknowledgment of the debt can restart the clock, so be cautious about paying anything on an old debt you think may already be past the deadline. Courts have declined to treat involuntary or failed payment attempts as genuine acknowledgments that reset the timeline.
Defamation and Invasion of Privacy
Libel, slander, and invasion of privacy claims carry the shortest civil deadline in Pennsylvania: one year from the date of the harmful statement or intrusion.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5523 – One Year Limitation The tight window catches people off guard, especially when reputational damage builds over time.
Adverse Possession
A property owner has 21 years to bring an action to recover possession from someone using the land continuously, openly, and exclusively.4Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5530 – Twenty-one Year Limitation If the owner doesn’t act within that window, the occupant may be able to claim title.
The Six-Year Catch-All
Any civil case that doesn’t fall under a more specific deadline must be filed within six years. It’s a residual category for the relatively uncommon claims that don’t fit anywhere else.
Suing a Government Entity
Claims against a state agency or local government come with an extra deadline that people often miss. Before you can file a lawsuit, you must submit a written notice of your claim within six months of the injury.5Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5522 – Six Months Limitation This is separate from the underlying statute of limitations. You can be well within the two-year personal injury window and still lose your right to sue because you missed the six-month notice.
The notice must include your name and address, the date and location of the incident, and the name and address of any treating physician. Commonwealth agency claims go to both the agency and the Attorney General’s office; local government claims go to the relevant local agency. Courts can excuse a late filing if you show a reasonable explanation, and the notice requirement doesn’t apply when the government already had actual or constructive knowledge of the incident.
Employment Discrimination
Workplace discrimination runs on its own timeline. You have 180 days from the discriminatory act to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.6Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Filing a Complaint
For federal claims under Title VII, the ADA, or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the deadline extends to 300 days to file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pennsylvania qualifies for the longer federal window because the PHRC enforces parallel state laws.7EEOC. Time Limits for Filing a Charge These are calendar days, not business days, and they are enforced strictly.
Criminal Prosecution Deadlines
How long prosecutors have to file charges depends on the offense.
No Time Limit
Murder, voluntary manslaughter, and conspiracies or solicitations resulting in murder can be prosecuted at any time. The same applies to hit-and-run accidents involving death, vehicular homicide, and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer when the attacker knew the victim was an officer. Certain sexual offenses against children under 18 — including rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and incest — also have no limit.8Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5551 – No Limitation Applicable
Felonies and Misdemeanors
Most felonies listed in the statute — theft, forgery, insurance fraud, bribery, and various drug offenses — must be prosecuted within five years. Major sexual offenses against adults, such as rape and sexual assault, carry a 12-year window. All other offenses, including most misdemeanors, default to a two-year deadline.9Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5552 – Other Offenses
Sexual Offenses Against Minors
When a sexual offense against a minor doesn’t qualify for the no-limit rule under Section 5551, Pennsylvania still provides an extended deadline. Prosecutors can bring charges until the later of the standard deadline calculated from the victim’s 18th birthday or the date the victim turns 55.9Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5552 – Other Offenses
When the Clock Pauses or Shifts
Several situations delay the start of the deadline or stop it from running.
The Discovery Rule
The discovery rule postpones the start of the limitations period until you knew or reasonably should have known about the injury and its cause. It applies most often in cases involving latent disease, misdiagnosis, or hidden defects.
In Nicolaou v. Martin (2018), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed a summary judgment dismissing a Lyme disease misdiagnosis claim as time-barred, holding that whether the patient acted with reasonable diligence in discovering the malpractice was a factual question for a jury.10Justia Law. Nicolaou v. Martin The rule doesn’t give you unlimited time. Once you have reason to suspect something is wrong, you must diligently investigate.
Fraudulent Concealment
When a defendant actively hides wrongdoing, Pennsylvania courts may toll the statute of limitations. The clock doesn’t start until the fraud is discovered or should have been discovered through reasonable diligence. This is a court-developed doctrine applied regularly where the defendant’s own deception caused the delay.
Minors and Mental Incapacity
If you were under 18 when a cause of action arose, the statute of limitations does not begin running until you turn 18. You then get the same filing period as any adult.11Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5533 – Infancy, Insanity or Imprisonment A child injured at age 10 would have until their 20th birthday to file a personal injury suit.
A similar tolling rule applies when someone is mentally incapacitated at the time the claim accrues. The period may be paused until the person regains competency.
Defendant Absent From Pennsylvania
If a defendant leaves the state and remains continuously absent for four months or more, that time does not count toward the statute of limitations. The same rule applies if the defendant lives in Pennsylvania under a false name unknown to the person with the claim. The tolling does not apply when the defendant has designated an agent for service of process or can otherwise be served without personal delivery within the state.12Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5532 – Absence or Concealment
DNA Evidence in Criminal Cases
When DNA later identifies someone as the perpetrator of a felony or certain sexual misdemeanors, prosecutors can bring charges within the normal limitation period or within one year after the DNA identification, whichever is later.13Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 42-5552 – Other Offenses – Section: Genetic Identification Evidence
What Happens if You Miss the Deadline
The consequences are harsh. In civil cases, if the defendant raises the expired deadline as a defense, the court will dismiss the case. Judges have virtually no discretion to override it, regardless of how strong the underlying claim might be. The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense — the defendant has to raise it, and a court won’t dismiss on its own — but in practice, almost every defendant does.
In criminal cases, an expired deadline bars prosecution entirely. Even if new non-DNA evidence surfaces, prosecutors cannot file charges once the window closes. Pennsylvania courts enforce these limits strictly, which is why identifying the right deadline for your situation matters from day one.