California law sets strict deadlines for filing personal injury lawsuits. Miss the deadline by a single day and your case is gone — no matter how strong your evidence or how serious your injuries. Here is exactly how long you have, what the exceptions are, and why acting quickly matters.
California's standard statute of limitations for personal injury is two years from the date of injury, codified at California Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1. This covers the vast majority of personal injury cases — car accidents, motorcycle crashes, slip and fall incidents, dog bites, premises liability, and pedestrian accidents caused by private parties.
Two years sounds like a long time. It is not. Insurance companies know exactly when your deadline is. They use the time to investigate your case, build their defense, and wait for your evidence to go stale. Traffic camera footage is typically overwritten within 72 hours. Witnesses move and their memories fade. Medical records get harder to obtain. The sooner you retain an attorney, the more of this evidence can be preserved.
If any government entity contributed to your injury — the City of San Jose through a poorly maintained road, Caltrans through a dangerous highway condition, a Santa Clara County school district, a public transit vehicle — the deadline shrinks dramatically. You must file a government tort claim within six months of the injury date under California Government Code § 911.2.
This is the most dangerous deadline in California personal injury law because most people do not know it exists. A pothole on a city street. A broken sidewalk maintained by the city. A traffic signal that failed. A city bus that ran a red light. All of these involve government entities and all of them carry the six-month deadline. Missing it permanently bars your claim — even if you file a lawsuit against the driver within the normal two-year window.
The two-year clock normally starts on the date of the accident. But California's discovery rule provides an exception: if you did not know and reasonably could not have known about your injury at the time of the accident, the clock starts from the date you discovered — or should have discovered — the injury.
This exception applies most often to latent injuries. Internal bleeding that was not detected at the emergency room. A herniated disc that showed no symptoms until weeks later. Traumatic brain injury symptoms that were initially attributed to stress. When these injuries surface after the accident date, the discovery rule may extend your filing window — but this is not automatic and requires legal argument. Do not assume this exception applies to your case without consulting an attorney.
For injured plaintiffs under 18 at the time of the accident, California tolls — pauses — the statute of limitations until the minor's 18th birthday. This means a minor injured at age 10 has until age 20 to file a personal injury lawsuit. Parents can also file on behalf of minor children within the standard two-year window without waiting.
However, the government tort claim exception applies regardless of age. A minor injured by a government entity still faces the six-month deadline for the administrative tort claim. Parents of injured children must act within six months if any government entity may be involved.
California law recognizes several other tolling situations that pause the statute of limitations. Mental incapacity at the time of injury — if the plaintiff was legally incapacitated and unable to make legal decisions — tolls the statute until capacity is restored. If the defendant left California after the injury and before a lawsuit could be served, the time they spent outside the state typically does not count against the plaintiff's deadline.
Even if you are well within your deadline, waiting harms your case in ways that have nothing to do with the statute of limitations. Traffic camera footage from San Jose's network is overwritten on a rolling basis — often within 48 to 72 hours. Private security camera footage follows similar schedules. Witness memories are sharpest immediately after the accident and degrade with time. Accident scene conditions change — potholes get filled, debris gets cleared, road markings get repainted.
Medical documentation is also strongest when started immediately. Gaps in treatment give insurance companies ammunition to argue that your injuries were not serious or that something else caused them. Every week without documented medical care is a week the insurance company will use against you.
The free consultation with our San Jose personal injury attorneys costs you nothing. The call takes fifteen minutes. The evidence we can preserve in the first 48 hours can be the difference between a strong case and a weak one. Call us today.
The six-month government tort claim deadline under Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2 is the deadline that ends the most California personal injury cases prematurely. It applies whenever any government entity — the City of San Jose, the County of Santa Clara, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Caltrans, or any California public agency — bears any possible responsibility for your injury. That includes a pothole on a city street, a malfunctioning traffic signal, a poorly designed crosswalk, a public bus or light rail vehicle, or a government employee behind the wheel of a government vehicle.
The six-month window begins running on the date of the injury. If you miss it, you forfeit your claim against the government entity permanently — not the private defendants, but the government portion. Because government liability often represents a significant share of the recovery in cases involving public infrastructure, losing it substantially reduces what you can recover. We identify whether a government entity is involved in the first consultation and act on it that day.
Whether you have two years or six months, evidence disappears fast. Call us today for a free review of your case and deadline.
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