California Car Accident Statute of Limitations: How Long Do You Have to File? (2026)

A statute of limitations is not a guideline. It is a wall. Miss it by one day and a court will dismiss a case worth six figures without ever hearing the facts. California's rules look simple — two years — until a city bus, a minor, or a Caltrans work zone enters the picture. Then everything changes.

Quick Answer

In California, you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit (CCP § 335.1) and three years for property damage (CCP § 338). If a government entity or employee is involved, you must first present an administrative claim within six months for injury, or one year for property damage (Gov. Code § 911.2). These deadlines are strictly enforced.

Record your accident today with NowAccident → — evidence fades long before the deadline does.

California Deadline Table

Why is the personal injury deadline two years?

Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 sets two years for an action for injury caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The clock generally starts the day the accident happens.

The rationale is evidentiary. Skid marks are washed away in a week. Surveillance footage is overwritten in thirty days. Witnesses move. A rule that let claims sit for a decade would make fair defense impossible. That same logic — evidence decays — is the reason to document a crash on day one rather than year one.

Why is property damage three years?

Code of Civil Procedure § 338 allows three years for an action for taking, detaining, or injuring goods or personal property. A damaged vehicle falls squarely in that category.

The practical consequence is that the two clocks run simultaneously and independently from the same crash. Your injury claim can expire while your property damage claim remains alive for another year. Do not assume that an open property claim keeps your injury claim breathing. It does not.

What happens if a government vehicle was involved?

This is where most Californians lose cases they should have won.

If your crash involved a city bus, a police cruiser, a county maintenance truck, a school district vehicle, a transit agency, or a dangerous condition on a public road, you cannot go straight to court. The California Government Claims Act requires you to first present a written claim to the correct public entity.

• Personal injury or wrongful death: six months from the date of injury (Gov. Code § 911.2)
• Property damage: one year from the date of damage

After presentation, the entity generally has 45 days to act. If it formally rejects your claim in writing, Government Code § 945.6 gives you six months from that written rejection to file suit. If the entity never responds, a longer window applies — but relying on silence is a bad plan.

Two failure modes recur:

1. Identifying the wrong entity. Is the road maintained by the city, the county, or Caltrans? Filing against the city when the state owns the roadway can be fatal.
2. Assuming the six-month claim deadline pauses the two-year statute. It does not. Both run.

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What is "tolling," and when does the clock pause?

Tolling suspends the running of a limitations period. It does not refund time already used. California recognizes several grounds:

Minors. Under CCP § 352, if the injured person was under 18 at the time of the crash, the clock generally does not begin until their 18th birthday. A 16-year-old injured today typically has until age 20 to sue.

Mental incapacity. If the injured person lacked legal capacity when the claim accrued, the period may be tolled until capacity is restored.

Defendant absent from California. Under CCP § 351, time the defendant spends outside the state after causing the injury generally does not count against you. This provision has been narrowed by courts in some commercial contexts; do not rely on it without counsel.

The discovery rule. Where an injury or its cause could not reasonably have been discovered right away, the clock may start when the plaintiff knew or should have known of the harm. In auto cases this is uncommon — you generally know you were hit — but it can matter for latent injuries.

Wrongful death. The two years run from the date of death, which may be months after the collision.

Important: Tolling is fact-specific and routinely contested by insurers. Treat it as a possible lifeline your attorney evaluates, never as a scheduling assumption.

Does the deadline apply to insurance claims too?

No, and this distinction confuses many people.

• The statute of limitations is a deadline to file a lawsuit in court.
• Your insurance policy contains its own contractual notice and cooperation requirements — usually "prompt" notice, sometimes with specific windows for uninsured motorist claims.

Settlement negotiations do not stop the statutory clock. An adjuster who keeps saying "we're still reviewing" at month 22 may not be stalling deliberately — but the effect is the same. When the two years expire, your leverage evaporates completely, because the insurer knows you can no longer sue.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) claims can carry their own contractual deadlines, and demands for arbitration are sometimes required within two years of the accident. Read the policy.

What if the driver who hit me fled?

The two-year injury statute still generally runs from the date of the crash, not from the date the driver is identified. If police never find them, your uninsured motorist coverage becomes the claim. Report a hit-and-run to police promptly — UM coverage for a phantom vehicle typically requires prompt reporting and independent corroboration.

Should you wait until the deadline approaches?

Almost never. Waiting hurts in three concrete ways:

1. Evidence quality collapses. Store camera footage is gone in weeks. Witnesses stop answering.
2. Treatment gaps get argued. A long delay between injury and care invites the argument that something else caused it.
3. Negotiating leverage disappears. An insurer facing a defendant with 22 months of runway behaves differently than one facing 45 days.

That said, filing suit on day 30 is rarely right either. Attorneys often wait until the client reaches maximum medical improvement — the point where a doctor can describe the permanent effects — because settling before then risks underselling a lifelong injury. The two-year window exists to give that process room.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have to sue after a car accident in California? Two years from the crash for personal injury (CCP § 335.1); three years for property damage (CCP § 338).

How long do I have to sue a city or county in California? You must present a written administrative claim within six months of the injury (Gov. Code § 911.2). If it is rejected in writing, you generally have six months from that rejection to sue (Gov. Code § 945.6).

Does the statute of limitations start on the accident date or the date I found the injury? Ordinarily the accident date. The discovery rule can move the start date where the injury or its cause could not reasonably have been discovered — a narrow exception in auto cases.

What happens if I miss the statute of limitations? The defendant will move to dismiss, and courts grant those motions almost without exception, regardless of how strong the underlying case was.

Does a minor get more time? Generally yes. Under CCP § 352, the two-year clock typically does not start until the injured minor turns 18.

The deadline is two years. The evidence has a shelf life of about two weeks. Record your accident with NowAccident — free, three minutes.

Sources

• California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 335.1, 338, 351, 352
• California Government Code §§ 905, 911.2, 945.6
• California Vehicle Code § 16000
• California Courts Self-Help Guide — Deadlines to sue someone

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about California law as of the last updated date. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Limitations periods and tolling doctrines are technical, fact-dependent, and change over time. A missed deadline is usually irreversible. Verify current law on the official California Legislative Information website and consult a licensed California attorney about your specific deadlines as early as possible.