Personal Injuries & Statute of Limitations in California
When a person in California is in an accident and suffers a personal injury–– whether it’s physical, financial, or mental––you have the right to file a claim or lawsuit to recover damages from the person or entity at fault for the accident. But the time you have to file the claim or lawsuit is limited. This law is known as the Statute of Limitations. The limit on the time to commence a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit is critical to a case because:
1. a comprehensive investigation takes time and so does putting the claim or lawsuit together; and
2. if you fail to file timely then you will forever lose your opportunity to file a claim or lawsuit––there are no exceptions.
On the one hand, California law provides injured parties with a way to recover fair and just damages. On the other hand, you only have a certain period of time to file the claim, and this is to protect the defendant against a lawsuit being filed years or decades after the injury occurred. Time is of the essence, so contact us. We waste no time helping you find a smart, trusted personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles.
What Is the Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims or Lawsuits in California?
California’s Statute of Limitations for personal injury claims is governed by the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) § 335.1. According to § 335.1, generally, the time to commence actions for assault, battery, or injury or for the death of an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another person is two years. Once the two years are up, you cannot file a claim. This means you cannot seek compensatory or punitive damages or any other type of relief.
Two years may seem like a long time, especially from the perspective of a recently injured person who wants only to rest, recuperate, and recover, but two years will come and go before you know it. During those two years, evidence can fade, disappear, or be covered up. Witnesses may move away or become unavailable or unable to be located. Memories can blur and get mixed up. Documents can burn in fires or get misplaced. Computer data can succumb to malware or other computer issues. It’s important to gather, maintain, and protect evidence, and it’s important to do so as soon as possible or else risk the integrity and strength of your personal injury case.
A statute of limitations for two years covers most personal injury cases, but there are different statutes of limitations for specific types of personal injury cases.
- Injury or Wrongful Death to a Person. As mentioned, when a defendant harms you with or without meaning to do so, according to CCP § 335.1, you have two (2) years from the date of the injury. Incidents where a personal injury claim or wrongful death claim may arise include but are not limited to the following:
- Negligent or reckless acts (e.g., auto accidents, slips and falls (premises liability), nursing home accidents, bicycling accidents, pedestrian accidents, rideshare accidents, moped accidents, motorcycle accidents, boat accidents, amusement part accidents, etc.)
- Intentional acts (e.g., assault, battery, sexual assault, etc.)
- Intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress
- Defective Products (e.g., breast implants, asbestos, Monsanto’s Roundup, hernia mesh devices, etc.)
- Defamation. When a defendant defames you verbally (i.e., slander) or in print, writing, or pictures (i.e., libel), according to CCP § 340(c), you have one (1) year from the date of injury––typically the date of the publication––to file a defamation suit.
- Injury to a Person Due to Known (Apparent) Problems during Construction or Improvement of Real Property.When a defendant causes harm or death via known problems, or patent defects or deficiency, occurring in the “construction of an improvement to, or survey of, real property,” according to CCP § 337.1, you typically have four (4) years from the date the construction was mostly finished. A patent deficiency refers to any defect that is “apparent by reasonable inspection.”
- Injury to a Person Due to Unknown (Not Apparent) Problems. When a defendant causes harm or death via unknown problems, or latent defects, according to CCP § 337.15, you typically have ten (10) years from the date of “substantial completion” of the construction. A latent deficiency refers to any defect that is “not apparent by reasonable inspection.”
- Injury or Death to a Person Caused by Government Agencies or Offices.Government personal injury cases are different from other personal injury cases. According to Government Code § 911.2, you must file an administrative claim with the at-fault government office before you file a lawsuit. This government claim form must be filed six (6) months of the date of injury or death.
- Medical Malpractice.When a medical professional or health-care provider causes harm or death to another person, according to CCP § 340.5, you have one (1) year from the date you discovered or should have known about the injury or three (3) years from the date the injury was sustained, whichever one occurs first. For example, imagine you had surgery and the surgeon left a sponge in your abdomen area, but you didn’t start feeling pain until two years later, at which time the sponge was discovered by X-ray. You can file a lawsuit because it was still within the three-year discovery period (the date you had the surgery and the doctor negligently left a sponge) and you wouldn’t have reasonably known that the doctor was negligent until the pain materialized to indicate something was wrong. If, however, you didn’t discover the sponge until 4 years from the date of the surgery, you would not be able to recover damages.
There are other statutes of limitations that may be relevant to your personal injury claim, namely the following:
- Property Damage. When a defendant––with or without intent––damages or destroys your property, according to CCP § 338, you have three (3) years from the date the property damage occurred. Examples of relevant property damage claims include:
o Your car via an auto accident;
o Money via conversion where a person took the property from you and converted it to his or hers;
o Property damage when a person entered your property without permission (trespass).
- Written Contracts. When a defendant breaches a written contract with you, according to CCP § 337, you have four (4) years from the date the contract was breached. This may not seem relevant to personal injury cases, but imagine you had a contract with someone to build a sunroom onto your home, and in the contract it says you must take all measures to negotiate and avoid litigation if the contract is breached. The flooring was improperly laid and the homeowner trips, falls, and harms himself. He takes the appropriate steps to negotiate and avoid litigation, but in the meantime, the statutes of limitations to file a personal injury claim expires (2 years). He may still recover damages if he files a claim based on contractual law theory, which carries a statute of limitations of 4 years.
- Oral Contracts. When a defendant breaches an oral contract with you, according to CCP § 339, you have two (2) years from the date the oral contract was breached. Oral contracts pose their own unique challenges, but typically you will have some evidence of its existence (e.g., receipts, text messages, etc.)
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Are There Exceptions to the Statute of Limitations?
There are no exceptions to the Statutes of Limitations for any and all personal injury claims. There are, however, two important doctrines to keep in mind that can act, in some respects, as exceptions:
1. Delayed discovery; and
2. Tolling of the statute of limitations.
Delayed Discovery
Under the delayed discovery rule, a defendant may use as a defense and prove that the plaintiff did not timely file a claim or lawsuit––meaning the plaintiff failed to file according to the relevant statute of limitations. On the other hand, if you are a plaintiff, you can take advantage of a longer statute of limitations when you can prove one of the following two:
1. You must not have known the facts that would have otherwise prompted a reasonable person to suspect they were harmed by someone else’s wrongful conduct; or
2. You were harmed but did not discover and a reasonable and diligent investigation would also not have discovered that a defective product or another person or entity caused or contributed to the harm.
For example, you may have been injured by an unsafe drug or defective medical product, but at the time of the lawsuit, a reasonable investigation only disclosed the surgeon as the at-fault party. It wasn’t until later it was discovered the manufacturer of the product was also at fault. You would be able to bring a suit against the at-fault manufacturer, too, even if the two-year statute of limitations had expired.
Tolling of the Statute of Limitations
Tolling of the statute of limitations occurs under certain circumstances and simply means the clock for the statute of limitations does not begin to run until a certain event occurs. In other words, certain situations or conditions can suspend the statute of limitations, and this is true for the defendant and the plaintiff.
Conditions involving the defendant that would lead to the tolling of the statute of limitations include a defendant who is:
- Under the age of 18;
- Out of California or the country;
- In prison; or
- Legally insane.
The statute of limitations will resume once the relevant situation ends, meaning the defendant turns 18, returns to California, is released from prison, or is claimed legally sane.
On the contrary, conditions involving the plaintiff that would lead to the tolling of the statute of limitations include a plaintiff who is:
- Under the age of 18––a minor lacks the legal capacity to make decisions and so the statute of limitations does not start to run until the age of 18 except in medical malpractice cases. If the minor is under the age of six at the time of the injury, a claim must be brought before the child turns 8 years old.
- A victim of a crime––a victim of a felony has the right to sue in California but is not always required to sue within the two-year limit. In cases of rape, kidnapping, attempted murder, or murder, the statute of limitations is ten (10) years, and that starts when the defendant is released from prison and discharged from parole. In other less serious felony cases, the statute of limitations is one (1) year from the date of the defendant’s judgment.
- A victim of child sexual abuse or assault––California law allows child-sexually abused victims to file a claim up until they turn 40 years old or five years after discovering the abuse, whichever occurs later. That means you could turn 41 years old and not discover that an experience as a child was sexual abuse and still be able to file a claim within five years.
- A victim of mesothelioma or other asbestos-related medical conditions––victims of asbestos may not have health-conditions materialize until years or decades after exposure to asbestos. Victims have one (1) year from the date they suffered a disability (e.g., the date cancer or other condition actually materialized) or one (1) year from the date they knew or should have known through reasonable diligence that they suffered the disability (e.g., the date the cancer was diagnosed and it was confirmed asbestos caused or contributed to it).
Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer in Los Angeles Today
If you believe you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury, it is critical to seek the advice and advocacy of respected, knowledgeable personal injury attorneys in the Los Angeles metro area. Contact us immediately so that we can begin helping you get the legal counsel and compensation you need and deserve.
