What’s the statute of limitations for negligence in California?

In California, the statute of limitations for lawsuits based on negligence is usually two (2) years. There are some exceptions to this, such as for medical malpractice.

Some factors can toll (or delay) the statute of limitations, such as when you could not reasonably have discovered your injuries. Suing after the time has expired will get your lawsuit dismissed.

The following bubble graph shows the most common statute of limitations for personal injury lawsuits based on negligence:

California’s Statute of Limitations for Negligence

The majority of claims based on negligence, also known as personal injury claims, fall under the 2-year statute of limitations.¹ This includes most causes of action following:

• car accidents,
• product liability,
• slip and falls,
• dog bites, and
• wrongful death.

A major reason for strict limitations periods is to encourage victims to take prompt action after the wrongful act while evidence and memories are still fresh.

Some type of negligence cases have statutes of limitations that are longer or shorter than 2 years, as discussed below.

Medical Malpractice

In California, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims is the earlier of:

• 1 year after discovering your injuries, or
• 3 years after the incident of malpractice.

There are 4 exceptions to this timeframe:

1. there is proof that the healthcare provider committed fraud,
2. the healthcare provider intentionally concealed their malpractice,
3. the lawsuit is over a foreign object that was left inside a patient, typically during a surgery, and
4. the victim was under the age of 6.²

Wrongful Birth

Wrongful birth is a type of medical malpractice claim when:

• a doctor failed to warn pregnant parents of the risks that their child would be born with a disability or a genetic impairment, or failed to conduct the tests necessary to discover those risks,
• the child was then born with a disability,
• the parents would not have gone through with the pregnancy or conceived the child, had they known of the risks, and
• the doctor’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing the parents’ losses.

Wrongful birth lawsuits must be filed within 6 years of the date of birth.³

Claims Against the Government

If the party responsible for your injury is a government entity, you first have to file an administrative claim only 6 months from the date of the accident. The government has 45 days to respond.

If the government denies your claim, you have 6 months from the date of denial to file a lawsuit in California court. If the government does not respond within 45 days or you do not get a rejection, you have 2 years from the date of the incident to file the lawsuit in court.⁴

Note the 6-month rule applies to all types of public entities and governments, including:

• the State of California,
• cities,
• county governments,
• public school districts, and
• the California State University System.

The reason for these tighter time limits is to protect the taxpayer money that would be used to cover a settlement or verdict.

Ways the Statute of Limitations Get Tolled

There are several reasons that may toll (pause) a statute of limitations. As discussed below, the most common tolling conditions are:

1. your injuries could not reasonably have been discovered, or
2. the victim is underage.

Discovery Rule

Unless it says otherwise, the statute of limitations gets tolled until you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, your injuries. This is known as the discovery rule. It gets triggered when:

• a reasonable person would not have thought that they had been hurt by someone else’s negligence, or
• you did not discover, and a reasonable and diligent investigation would not have discovered, the factual basis for your lawsuit.⁵

The discovery rule is important for injuries that are not apparent. It gives you the ability to take legal action after a delayed discovery of your losses.

Example: For years, Bryce takes a prescription drug for a medical condition. Decades later he discovers that the drug causes the type of cancer that he has developed. Were it not for the discovery rule, the statute of limitations would have expired long ago.

Note, however, that the discovery rule is drastically weakened in medical malpractice claims. The statute of limitations for those legal claims is only 1 year after discovering your injury or 3 years after the injury occurred (whichever is sooner).⁶

Underage Victims

In California, minors under the age of 18 lack the legal capacity to file a lawsuit. For this reason, California law tolls the statute of limitations until underage victims turn 18. Therefore in a standard negligence case, a child victim would have until they are 20 to sue (18 years plus the 2-year statute of limitations).

However, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice cases by underage victims is less forgiving. For children 5 and under, the statute of limitations is only the later of:

• 3 years after the malpractice, or
• the child’s 8th birthday.

For minors 6 and older, the time limit for minor victims to sue is 3 years after the malpractice.

This statute of limitations gets tolled only if the child’s parents or guardian collude with the healthcare provider or its insurance company and fail to file the lawsuit on their child’s behalf.⁷

Stale Cases Can Be Dismissed

A negligence lawsuit that has been filed after the applicable statute of limitations has expired can be dismissed. Defendants in the case only have to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit for being time-barred.

According to the California Civil Jury Instructions:

Defendant contends that the plaintiff’s lawsuit was not filed within the time set by law. To succeed on this defense, the defendant must prove that the plaintiff’s claimed harm occurred before the date the applicable statute of limitations expired.⁸

This is often fairly easy for the defendant to prove.

Additional Reading

For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:

• The Limits of Statutes of Limitation – Southwestern Law Review.
• Deterrence, litigation costs, and the statute of limitations for tort suits – International Review of Law and Economics.
• California Personal Injury Statutes of Limitations: The Modern Tort and the Judicial Abandonment of an Archaic Doctrine – Santa Clara Law Review.
• Tort Liability and the Statutes of Limitation – Missouri Law Review.

Legal References