Wisconsin Statute of Limitations: Civil, Criminal, and Tolling Rules

The Wisconsin statute of limitations sets how long you have to file a lawsuit or how long prosecutors have to bring criminal charges, and the deadline varies by case type. Personal injury claims generally must be filed within three years, contract and most property disputes within six, and most felony prosecutions must begin within six years of the crime. A handful of serious crimes have no deadline at all, and claims against government bodies run on a much shorter clock that catches people off guard.

Civil Deadlines at a Glance

Personal injury: 3 years
Wrongful death: 3 years (2 years if caused by a motor vehicle)
Medical malpractice: 3 years from injury, or 1 year from discovery, whichever is later (5-year outer limit)
Written or verbal contracts: 6 years
Property damage: 6 years (3 years if caused by a motor vehicle)
Fraud: 6 years from discovery
Claims against a government entity: 120-day notice, then 6 months to sue after denial

Personal Injury and Wrongful Death

Most personal injury claims must be filed within three years of the date you were hurt. That covers car accidents, slip-and-fall injuries, dog bites, and similar harm to your body.¹

Wrongful death follows the same three-year rule with one major exception. If the death resulted from a motor vehicle accident, you only have two years to file.¹ That shorter window surprises families still processing a loss. Two years feels like a long time until it isn’t.

Medical Malpractice

Malpractice claims have their own structure. You must file within whichever of these two periods ends later: three years from the date of the injury, or one year from the date you discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the harm.² The discovery option exists because surgical errors, misdiagnoses, and medication mistakes sometimes don’t show symptoms for months or years.

There is an absolute outer boundary. No malpractice claim can be started more than five years after the act or omission that caused the injury, even if you genuinely didn’t know about it yet.² If a provider actively concealed the error, you get one year from the date you discover the concealment, or the standard deadline, whichever gives you more time.

Contracts and Property Damage

Contract disputes get six years, whether the agreement was written or verbal.³ Proving a verbal contract becomes harder with time because there’s no document to point to, so waiting years to sue over a handshake deal is risky even if the clock hasn’t run out.

Property damage claims also carry a six-year deadline for most situations, including trespass, vandalism, and boundary disputes. The exception, again, involves motor vehicles: if the property damage came from a car accident, the limit drops to three years.⁴

Suing a Government Entity

Suing a city, county, school district, or other government body in Wisconsin comes with a separate, much shorter deadline that trips up even experienced plaintiffs. Before you can file a lawsuit at all, you must serve a written notice of claim on the government entity within 120 days of the event that caused your injury.⁵

The 120-day notice isn’t a technicality you can skip. The notice must describe the circumstances of your claim. After you submit it, the government entity has 120 days to approve or deny. If they deny it (or ignore it, which counts as denial), you then have six months from that disallowance to file your actual lawsuit.⁵ There is a narrow escape valve: if the government entity had actual notice of your claim and you can prove the delay didn’t prejudice them, a court may excuse the missed notice. Counting on that exception is a gamble most people lose.

Criminal Prosecution Deadlines

Prosecutors face their own deadlines. Most felonies must be charged within six years of the crime, and misdemeanors within three years.⁶ Once that window closes, the state loses the power to prosecute.

Several of the most serious crimes have no time limit at all. First-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, second-degree intentional homicide, homicide by negligent handling of a weapon, first-degree sexual assault, and first-degree sexual assault of a child can all be charged at any point, no matter how many years have passed.⁶

Sexual Offenses

Time limits for sexual crimes are more nuanced than a single deadline. Second-degree and third-degree sexual assault carry a 10-year prosecution window. Many sexual offenses against children must be charged before the victim turns 45, while some less severe offenses against children must be charged before the victim turns 26.⁶

DNA Evidence Extensions

Wisconsin extends prosecution deadlines when DNA evidence identifies a suspect. If the state collects biological material before the normal deadline expires, develops a DNA profile, and gets a probable match, prosecutors can bring charges within 12 months of that identification or within the original time limit, whichever is later.⁶ The biological evidence must be collected before the original deadline runs out. DNA can’t resurrect a prosecution that already expired.

When the Clock Pauses

Wisconsin law pauses (or “tolls”) the statute of limitations in certain situations, effectively giving you more time to file.

Minors and mental illness: if the person entitled to bring a claim is under 18 or mentally ill when the cause of action arises, the clock doesn’t start until they turn 18 or the mental illness ends. Once the disability ceases, they have two years to file. For mental illness, the extension can’t exceed five years beyond the normal deadline.⁷
Defendant out of state: if the person you need to sue leaves Wisconsin or was out of state when your claim arose, the time they spend outside Wisconsin doesn’t count toward the deadline. This prevents someone from running out the clock by relocating.
Discovery rule: for claims like medical malpractice and fraud, the deadline doesn’t begin until you discover the injury or wrongdoing. For fraud specifically, the cause of action is treated as not accruing until the victim discovers (or reasonably should have discovered) the scheme; once that happens, the standard six-year contract window applies.

The disability tolling under section 893.16 has limits. It doesn’t apply to every type of claim, and the disability must have existed at the moment the cause of action first arose. Developing a disability after the clock started running won’t pause it.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

If you file after the statute of limitations has expired, the defendant will raise it as a defense, and courts have almost no discretion to override it. The case gets dismissed regardless of the merits. Judges aren’t making a judgment call; an expired deadline is a hard stop.

The practical damage extends beyond the courtroom. Once the filing window closes, your negotiating leverage disappears. Insurance companies and opposing parties have no reason to offer a settlement when they know you can’t back up your demand with a lawsuit. A strong claim with clear liability and substantial damages becomes worthless the day after the deadline passes. Most people get burned not because their case was weak, but because they waited too long to act on a strong one.

1
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 893.54 – Injury to the Person
2
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 893.55 – Medical Malpractice Limitation of Actions Limitation of Damages Itemization of Damages
3
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 893.43 – Action on Contract
4
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 893.52 – Action for Damages for Injury to Property
5
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 893.80 – Claims Against Governmental Bodies or Officers, Agents or Employees
6
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 939.74 – Time Limitations on Prosecutions
7
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 893.16 – Person Under Disability