Statute of Limitations in Mississippi: Civil, Criminal, and Tolling

The statute of limitations in Mississippi sets how long you have to file a civil lawsuit or how long prosecutors have to bring criminal charges, and the answer depends entirely on the type of case. Most civil claims run three years. Most criminal cases run two years, with a five-year window for a small group of felonies and no time limit at all for serious crimes like murder, robbery, arson, embezzlement, and fraud. Miss the deadline and the case is almost always gone for good.

Civil Deadlines

Mississippi’s catch-all civil deadline is three years. If no other statute sets a different period, you have three years from the date your claim arises to file suit.¹ That covers personal injury, property damage, most written contracts, and a range of other common disputes. Several categories break from the default, and where they do, the specific rule controls.

Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

Injuries caused by another person’s negligence or intentional conduct carry a three-year filing deadline from the date of the injury.¹ Wrongful death claims run three years from the date of death. If the fatal injury resulted from an intentional act, the deadline may be shortened to one year from the date the act was discovered.

When an injury is latent and you couldn’t reasonably have known about it right away, the three-year clock doesn’t start until you discover the harm or should have discovered it through ordinary diligence.¹ Toxic exposure and slow-developing conditions often fall here.

Property Damage

Property damage claims also fall under the three-year catch-all, and the same discovery rule applies to latent damage.¹ Construction defects, hidden water damage, and environmental contamination often accumulate out of sight, and in those cases the three-year period begins when the damage is or should have been discovered.

Contract Disputes

Written contracts and most oral contracts fall under the three-year deadline, running from the date of the breach.¹ Unwritten employment contracts are the exception: those carry only a one-year deadline.²

Sales of goods get a longer window. Under Mississippi’s version of the Uniform Commercial Code, you have six years from the date of the breach to sue over a sale-of-goods contract.³ A dispute over a $10,000 piece of equipment has twice the filing window of a dispute over a $10,000 services agreement.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice runs on a shorter schedule. Under Mississippi Code § 15-1-36, you generally have two years from the date of the malpractice, or from the date you discovered or reasonably should have discovered the injury. The discovery rule helps with misdiagnoses and other harms that aren’t immediately obvious.

A seven-year statute of repose sets a hard outer boundary. Even if the injury hasn’t yet been discovered, no malpractice suit can be filed more than seven years after the negligent act. Two narrow exceptions push past that wall: cases involving a foreign object left in the body, and cases where the healthcare provider actively concealed the error through fraud or altered records. For children under six, the limitations period doesn’t start until the child turns six.

Claims Against State and Local Government

Suing a Mississippi state agency, county, or city runs on a much tighter clock. Under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, you must file suit within one year of the date the claim arises, and you must first serve a written notice of claim on the entity’s chief executive officer or, for cities, the city clerk.⁴ Courts enforce the one-year deadline strictly. If a government employee or a public property is involved in your injury, this is the first date to lock in.

Recovery of Land

Actions to recover land carry the longest civil deadline in the state: ten years from the date the right to bring the claim first arose. This covers ownership disputes, adverse possession, and similar real property claims.

Criminal Deadlines

Mississippi’s criminal time limits sit in a single statute, Mississippi Code § 99-1-5, and offenses fall into three tiers: no time limit, five years, or two years.⁵

No Time Limit

Mississippi has an unusually broad list of offenses that can be prosecuted at any time. Most states reserve this treatment for murder. Mississippi extends it to:

Violent crimes: murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, aggravated domestic violence, kidnapping, and robbery
Property and financial crimes: arson, burglary, larceny, forgery, counterfeiting, embezzlement, and obtaining money or property through fraud
Sex crimes: rape, sexual battery of a child, and exploitation of children
Crimes against vulnerable people: felony child abuse, felony abuse of vulnerable adults, and human trafficking

The financial-crime piece surprises people. Embezzlement and fraud never age out in Mississippi.⁵

Five Years

A short list of offenses carries a five-year window, including felony assistance-program fraud, felony abuse of vulnerable persons under Mississippi Code § 43-47-19, and bribery.⁵

Two Years for Everything Else

Every criminal offense the statute doesn’t specifically name, including all misdemeanors, falls under a two-year deadline.⁵ Simple assault, disorderly conduct, and trespassing sit here. If two years pass without charges, prosecution is barred.

When the Clock Pauses

Several situations pause, or “toll,” the limitations period. When tolling applies, the clock stops running for the duration of the qualifying condition and resumes when it ends.

Minors and People With Disabilities

If the person entitled to sue is a minor or of unsound mind when the claim arises, the statute of limitations does not begin running until the disability is removed. For minors, that means the clock starts at the age of majority. For unsoundness of mind, tolling cannot extend beyond 21 years total, even if the disability continues.⁶

Absence From the State

If the person you need to sue leaves Mississippi after your claim arises and lives outside the state, that time does not count toward the limitations period.⁷ The same principle applies to criminal cases: the statute is suspended for anyone who flees, hides from law enforcement, or otherwise avoids service of process.⁵

Fraudulent Concealment

When a defendant actively hides the facts giving rise to your claim, Mississippi treats the cause of action as not having arisen until you discover the fraud or could have discovered it through reasonable diligence.⁸ This requires actual concealment by the person who would be liable, not just your lack of knowledge. A contractor who buries defective work behind drywall, or a business partner who falsifies records to cover up theft, could trigger the provision.

Restarting the Clock on a Debt

Mississippi treats debts differently. If the limitations period has not yet expired and you make a partial payment, acknowledge the debt in writing, or promise to pay, the entire limitations period resets from the date of that payment or acknowledgment.⁹

This only works while the statute is still running. Once the deadline has passed, a partial payment or verbal acknowledgment does not revive the creditor’s right to sue. Collectors sometimes push small payments on very old debts hoping to restart the clock. In Mississippi, that fails if the deadline has already run out. If even a day remains, a payment resets the full period.

Federal Cases Filed in Mississippi

Federal cases follow federal deadlines, not state ones. The default statute of limitations for non-capital federal criminal offenses is five years.¹⁰ Federal civil actions arising under Acts of Congress carry a four-year catch-all when no other federal statute sets a different period.¹¹

Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 are a hybrid. Because § 1983 sets no deadline of its own, federal courts borrow the personal injury statute from the state where the case arose. In Mississippi, that gives a § 1983 claim the state’s three-year window.¹ Tort claims against the United States government carry a two-year administrative claim deadline and a six-month window to sue after a denial.¹²

1
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 15-1-49 – Limitations Applicable to Actions
2
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 15-1-29 – Limitations Applicable to Actions on Accounts and Unwritten Contracts
3
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 75-2-725 – Statute of Limitations in Contracts for Sale
4
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 11-46-11 – Statute of Limitations; Notice of Claim Requirements
5
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 99-1-5 – Time Limitation on Prosecutions
6
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 15-1-59 – Saving in Favor of Persons Under Disability
7
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 15-1-63 – Effect of Absence From the State
8
FindLaw. Mississippi Code 15-1-67 – Fraudulent Concealment of Cause of Action
9
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 15-1-3 – Completion of Limitation Period
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3282 – Offenses Not Capital
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1658 – Time Limitations on the Commencement of Civil Actions Arising Under Acts of Congress
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States