What Is the Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury in Texas?

The statute of limitations for personal injury in Texas is two years from the date of the injury for most claims, under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003.¹ That window covers car accidents, slip-and-fall injuries, wrongful death, and most other claims for physical harm. Several exceptions shorten, extend, or pause the clock depending on the type of claim, who you are suing, and whether the injury was immediately apparent.

When the Two-Year Clock Starts and What Happens if You Miss It

The countdown begins the day the injury happens. For wrongful death claims, the two-year window runs from the date of death rather than the date of the underlying accident.

Miss the deadline and the defendant will raise the expired statute of limitations as a defense. The court will almost certainly dismiss the case. No amount of evidence or severity of injury overrides a blown deadline. Negotiating with an insurance company does not pause the clock either. The two-year period runs whether or not an adjuster has been talking to you the whole time.

Claims With Shorter Deadlines

Not every injury-related claim gets two years. Libel and slander claims must be filed within one year of the date the false statement was published.² The same one-year period applies to malicious prosecution claims. People often assume everything involving an injury to person or reputation falls under the general two-year rule, and that assumption can cost you the case.

Medical Malpractice Has Its Own Statute

Health care liability claims are governed by a separate statute. Under § 74.251, you have two years to file, but the clock starts from either the date of the medical error or the date the treatment giving rise to the claim ended, whichever is later.³ That distinction matters when treatment spans weeks or months.

Children have narrower protections here than under the general injury statute. A minor under 12 has until their 14th birthday to file or to have a claim filed on their behalf. The statute applies regardless of minority or other legal disability, which means the broader tolling for minors does not override these medical malpractice deadlines.³

Medical malpractice also carries a hard 10-year statute of repose. No matter when the injury is discovered, a claim filed more than 10 years after the negligent act is time-barred.³ The discovery rule does not override that cap.

Suing a Texas Government Entity: The Six-Month Notice Rule

Suing a state agency, county, or city requires an additional step that trips up more people than any other procedural rule in Texas personal injury law. Under the Texas Tort Claims Act, you must send a formal notice of claim to the government entity within six months of the incident.⁴ The notice must describe the injury, where and when the incident happened, and what occurred. Miss that six-month window and your claim can die even if you still have time left on the two-year lawsuit deadline.

Some Texas cities have charter provisions imposing even shorter notice periods, and the statute expressly ratifies those shorter deadlines.⁴ If you are injured on city property or in a crash involving a city vehicle, check that city’s charter immediately. The deadline could be as short as 45 to 90 days.

One safety valve exists: if the government entity already has actual notice that someone died, was injured, or had property damaged, the formal written notice requirement does not apply.⁴ Relying on it is a gamble. Proving what the entity knew and when it knew it is far harder than sending the notice on time.

Injuries Involving the Federal Government

If your injury involves a federal employee acting within the scope of their job, your claim falls under the Federal Tort Claims Act rather than Texas law. The FTCA has its own deadlines, completely separate from the state statute.

You must first file an administrative claim in writing with the responsible federal agency within two years of the date the claim accrues. You cannot skip this step and go straight to court. If the agency denies the claim, you then have six months from the date of the denial letter to file a lawsuit in federal court.⁵ If the agency does nothing for six months, you can treat the silence as a denial and proceed to court.⁶

Both the two-year administrative filing deadline and the six-month lawsuit deadline are firm. Federal courts dismiss FTCA cases for procedural defects routinely. If your accident involves a federal vehicle, a Veterans Affairs hospital, or a military installation in Texas, treat the FTCA clock as your primary concern from day one.

When the Clock Pauses

Minors and People of Unsound Mind

Outside of medical malpractice, the two-year clock does not run against a person who is under a legal disability at the time the injury occurs. Texas defines legal disability as being younger than 18 or being of unsound mind.⁷

For a child hurt in an accident, the two-year period does not begin until their 18th birthday, giving them until age 20 to file. For someone who is incapacitated, the clock stays paused until competency is restored. Two limits apply: you cannot stack one disability onto another to keep extending the deadline, and a disability that develops after the clock has already started running does not pause it.⁷

Active-Duty Military Service

Federal law adds another pause for servicemembers. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a period of active military service cannot be counted when calculating any statute of limitations, whether the servicemember is bringing the claim or being sued.⁸ A servicemember injured six months before deployment who then serves 18 months overseas has those 18 months excluded from the two-year calculation. The tolling is automatic and does not require a court petition.

Injuries You Could Not Reasonably Discover

Texas courts recognize a narrow discovery rule for injuries that are inherently undiscoverable at the time they occur. Under this exception, the limitations period does not begin to run until the claimant knew, or should have known through reasonable effort, about the injury.⁹

The textbook example is a surgeon leaving a sponge or instrument inside a patient. If the object causes no symptoms for years, the patient had no reasonable way to know about the error. Once symptoms appear or imaging reveals the problem, the clock starts. One catch many people miss: after discovery, you do not get the full two years. Texas courts have held that you get only a “reasonable time” to file, decided case by case. Waiting months after learning about a latent injury is risky.

Courts apply this exception sparingly. The burden is on you to prove the injury truly could not have been found sooner with ordinary diligence. If you had warning signs and ignored them, the discovery rule will not save your claim.

Fraud That Hid the Wrongdoing

Separate from the discovery rule, Texas recognizes fraudulent concealment as a basis for tolling. This applies when a defendant actively hides wrongdoing from the person they have injured. The cause of action still accrues at the time of injury, but the limitations period is paused because of the defendant’s deliberate deception.¹⁰

The tolling lasts only until the fraud is discovered or could have been discovered with reasonable diligence. After that, the clock resumes. You carry the burden of proving the defendant concealed the wrongdoing and that you could not have uncovered it sooner.¹⁰ You need actual evidence of concealment, not a suspicion that something was hidden.

Outer Limits That Nothing Extends

Even when the discovery rule or tolling extends a filing deadline, statutes of repose impose absolute outer limits that no exception overrides. These deadlines run from the date a product was sold or a construction project was completed, not from the date of any injury. A repose period can expire before you are ever hurt.

Products Liability: 15 Years

A products liability claim against a manufacturer or seller must be filed within 15 years of the date the product was sold. If a piece of industrial equipment injures you 16 years after purchase due to a manufacturing defect, the claim is barred regardless of when you discovered the defect. Long-latency disease claims are the exception: if you were exposed within the 15-year window but symptoms did not appear until later, the repose period does not apply.¹¹ If a manufacturer provides a written warranty for a useful safe life longer than 15 years, the repose period extends to match the warranty.

Construction and Design Defects: 10 Years

Claims against architects, engineers, interior designers, and landscape architects for defective design of improvements to real property must be filed within 10 years of substantial completion.¹² A parallel 10-year repose period applies to contractors and others who physically build or repair the improvement. If a balcony collapses 11 years after a building is completed, the injured party likely cannot sue the original builder or architect even though the injury just happened. Residential contractors who provide written warranties meeting certain minimum coverage periods get a shorter six-year repose window instead of 10.¹³

1
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003 – Two-Year Limitations Period
2
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.002 – One-Year Limitations Period
3
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 74.251 – Statute of Limitations on Health Care Liability Claims
4
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 101.101 – Notice
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2401 – Time for Commencing Action Against United States
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2675 – Disposition by Federal Agency as Prerequisite
7
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.001 – Effect of Disability
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3936 – Statute of Limitations
9
Supreme Court of Texas. Marcus and Millichap Real Estate Investment Services of Nevada Inc v Triex Texas Holdings LLC
10
Supreme Court of Texas. Texas Supreme Court Opinion – Fraudulent Concealment and Statute of Limitations
11
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.012 – Products Liability
12
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.008 – Architects, Engineers, Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects Furnishing Design, Planning, or Inspection of Construction of Improvements
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State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.009 – Persons Furnishing Construction or Repair of Improvements