The statute of limitations for defamation in California is one year. That applies to both libel (written) and slander (spoken), and it is set by Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 340 Courts enforce the deadline strictly. The harder questions are when that year starts, whether anything pauses it, and which shorter deadlines can quietly end your case long before the year is up.
When the One-Year Clock Starts
California follows the Uniform Single Publication Act, codified at Civil Code section 3425.3. You get one cause of action per defamatory statement, and the clock starts the moment that statement is first made available to the public, not when you learn about it.2California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 3425.3
For a newspaper article, that is the day the paper reaches newsstands. For a social media post, it is the moment the post goes live. Shares, retweets, and links to the original do not restart the deadline. One narrow opening exists: if the original is meaningfully revised with new defamatory content, a court may treat the revision as a new publication. A typo fix will not qualify. The change has to be substantive enough that the revised version is essentially a different statement.
When You Did Not Know About the Statement
The single-publication rule assumes the statement was public. When it was not, the discovery rule can shift the starting date. If the statement was made in a setting where you could not reasonably have found it, the one-year period begins when you actually discover it or when you should have discovered it through reasonable effort.
This typically applies to statements buried in confidential settings: a false remark in an internal personnel file, a defamatory note in a private credit report, or a statement in a sealed document circulated among a small group. Not knowing is not enough on its own. You have to show why a reasonable person in your position would not have found the statement sooner, and that burden is on you.
When the Clock Pauses
Certain circumstances can toll the one-year deadline, giving you additional time. Tolling is different from the discovery rule: the discovery rule changes when the clock starts, while tolling stops a clock that is already running.
- If you were under 18 when the statement was made, the deadline is paused during your minority and begins running when you turn 18.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 352
- If you lacked the legal capacity to make decisions when the statement was made, the time spent in that condition does not count toward the one year.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 352
- If the person who defamed you was outside California when the statement was made, or left the state afterward, that absence may not count toward the deadline.4California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 351
One important limit: the tolling provisions for minors and people lacking legal capacity do not apply to claims against government entities or public employees.3California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 352
Shorter Deadlines That Can End Your Case Early
Six Months for Claims Against the Government
If the person who defamed you is a government employee acting in their official capacity, you have to file a formal administrative tort claim with the responsible agency before you can sue. For claims involving injury to a person, that claim must be filed within six months of when the cause of action accrued.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.2 Miss that window and you lose the right to sue the government entity or employee, no matter how much time remains on the one-year statute.
Twenty Days for a Retraction Demand Against Media
If you are suing a daily or weekly news publication for libel, or a radio station for slander, Civil Code section 48a limits you to special damages (provable financial losses) unless you serve a written retraction demand on the publisher or broadcaster within 20 days of learning about the statement.6California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 48a Make the demand on time, and if the outlet fails to publish a comparably prominent correction within three weeks, you can pursue general and punitive damages. Skip it and you are stuck proving out-of-pocket losses, which in defamation cases are often difficult to quantify. The 20-day window is far shorter than the one-year statute, and letting it pass quietly can gut the value of your claim even if you file on time.
Anti-SLAPP: Filing Late or Weak Carries Extra Risk
Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 lets defendants in defamation cases file a special motion to strike within 60 days of being served if the lawsuit targets speech on a public issue or in the exercise of free speech rights. Discovery freezes while the motion is pending. If the court decides you have not shown a probability of winning, it dismisses the case and orders you to pay the defendant’s attorney fees and costs.7California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 425.16 California’s anti-SLAPP law is among the broadest in the country. Filing a weak or speculative defamation claim close to the deadline, without time to shore it up, is a particularly risky combination.
Online Posts and Anonymous Posters
If someone posts a defamatory statement on a social media site, review platform, or forum, the one-year clock starts when the post first appears, under the single-publication rule. Your claim runs against the person who wrote it. Federal law shields the platform itself from being treated as the publisher of user content, so suing Yelp or a similar site over a user’s post is generally not an option.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 230 – Protection for Private Blocking and Screening of Offensive Material When the poster is anonymous, identifying them through subpoenas takes time that counts against your one year. Act early.
What Happens If You File Too Late
If you file after the one-year deadline and no tolling exception applies, the court will dismiss the case. The defendant does not have to address the substance of your claim. Once the statute of limitations has run, your right to sue over that particular statement is gone permanently. No amount of evidence or severity of harm changes that. The one-year clock is the first thing any defamation attorney will check, and if it has already run out, there is nothing to build on.