Car accident statute of limitations in California
If you were hurt in a California crash, the number that matters most is two. California gives you two years from the date of the collision to file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver, under Code of Civil Procedure Section 335.11. Miss it, and the court will almost certainly throw the case out no matter how strong the underlying claim is.
That deadline sounds simple. It isn't always. California layers on a much shorter clock for crashes involving a government vehicle or a dangerous road, different tolling rules for injured children, and a separate window entirely for property damage. Here's what actually applies once you get past the general concept and into California's specific rules.
The two-year clock for injury and wrongful death claims
Section 335.1 covers assault, battery, or injury to, or the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another1. That's the section governing an ordinary rear-end collision, a T-bone at an intersection, or a fatal crash caused by a distracted or drunk driver. It applies whether you're suing over your own injuries or, if a loved one died, bringing a wrongful death claim on behalf of the estate or surviving family. It's a single two-year rule, no matter how the crash happened.
The clock generally starts on the date of the crash itself, not the date you finished treatment or the date an adjuster denied your claim.
When the clock doesn't start on impact
California recognizes a delayed discovery rule for injuries that aren't obvious right away. The California Supreme Court's decision in Fox v. Ethicon Endo-Surgery held that a claim doesn't accrue, and the limitations period doesn't start, until the plaintiff has reason to suspect both an injury and its wrongful cause2. In crash cases this comes up most with soft-tissue injuries that worsen over months, or a diagnosis, like a spinal disc injury found later on imaging, that only surfaces after the two-year window would otherwise have started running from the collision date. Courts apply this exception narrowly, but it exists.
Property damage runs on a longer clock
Vehicle damage follows a different statute entirely. Code of Civil Procedure Section 338(c)(1) gives you three years to sue over taking, detaining, or injuring goods or chattels, which covers damage to your car3. That's a full year longer than the personal injury deadline, so it's possible to still have a live property claim after the injury deadline has already closed. If your car lost resale value even after a proper repair, that diminished value claim runs on the same three-year property clock. Our guide to diminished value claims in California walks through how those are calculated.
Kids get the clock paused
If the injured person was a minor when the crash happened, Code of Civil Procedure Section 352 tolls, or pauses, the statute of limitations for as long as the disability of minority lasts4. In practice, the two-year window doesn't start running until the child turns 18. A five-year-old hurt in a crash generally has until their 20th birthday to file, not two years from the date of the collision. The same provision tolls the clock for someone who lacks the mental capacity to manage their own affairs when the claim accrues4.
A much shorter deadline when a government entity is involved
This is the one that catches the most people off guard. If the at-fault party is a government employee driving a city or county vehicle, or if a dangerous road condition, like a missing guardrail, a malfunctioning signal, or a pothole a public agency should have fixed, contributed to the crash, you're dealing with a public entity, and the Government Claims Act applies instead of the ordinary two-year statute.
Under Government Code Section 911.2, a claim for personal injury, death, or damage to personal property against a state or local government agency must be presented within six months of the crash5. That's an administrative claim submitted directly to the agency, required before any lawsuit against that agency can follow. Missing the six-month window doesn't automatically end things: Government Code Section 946.6 lets you petition a court for permission to file a late claim, on limited grounds like mistake, excusable neglect, minority, or physical or mental incapacity, and that petition has to be filed within six months of the agency denying your late-claim application6. Waiting to see how serious your injuries are before figuring out who was actually liable is a common and costly mistake in crashes involving a government vehicle or a defective road.
Multiple defendants, same clock
Drunk driving crashes sometimes bring in a second defendant beyond the driver. California generally shields bars and stores that sell alcohol from civil liability for a customer's later actions7, but there's a narrow carve-out: a licensee who serves an obviously intoxicated minor faces civil liability if that sale proximately causes injury7. If that applies to your crash, the claim against the establishment still runs on the same two-year clock under Section 335.1, rather than a deadline of its own1.
Insurance deadlines are not the lawsuit deadline
The statute of limitations governs when you can file in court. It has nothing to do with how quickly you must notify your own insurer. California requires every auto liability policy to include an offer of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which the named insured can decline only in writing, under Insurance Code Section 11580.28. A UM/UIM claim against your own carrier is a contract claim rather than a personal injury lawsuit, and it's typically bound by its own shorter deadline for demanding arbitration, written into the policy itself. Read your declarations page rather than assume it lines up with Section 335.1. The lawsuit clock and the insurance-claim clock can run out on completely different days.
What happens if you miss the deadline
If the statute of limitations has run, the defendant, or the government entity's attorney, moves to dismiss, and California courts grant those motions routinely. There's no hearing on the merits once the window has closed; the case ends on the calendar rather than the facts. That holds in wrongful death cases too, since Section 335.1 covers those claims as well1.
Before the clock runs out
None of this is a reason to wait. Evidence disappears fast: skid marks fade and dashcam footage gets overwritten before most people think to ask for it. Getting the official collision report early matters too, since insurers and courts both rely on it. The California Highway Patrol handles these through Form CHP 1909; our guide to requesting a California crash report covers how that process works. Because the deadline on your specific crash depends on who caused it, whether a government entity was involved, and how old the injured person was, it's worth having a lawyer confirm which clock you're actually on well before it's close to running out. Our legal directory can help you find one.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Sources
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California Legislative Information, Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=335.1&lawCode=CCP
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CourtListener, Fox v. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. (2005) 35 Cal.4th 797, https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2547294/fox-v-ethicon-endo-surgery-inc/
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California Legislative Information, Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1), https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=338.&lawCode=CCP
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California Legislative Information, Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 352, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=352.&lawCode=CCP
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California Legislative Information, Cal. Gov. Code § 911.2, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=911.2.&lawCode=GOV
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California Legislative Information, Cal. Gov. Code § 946.6, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=946.6.&lawCode=GOV
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California Legislative Information, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 25602, 25602.1, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC§ionNum=25602.1.
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California Legislative Information, Cal. Ins. Code § 11580.2, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=11580.2&lawCode=INS
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California Highway Patrol, Collision Report (CHP 190), https://www.chp.ca.gov/notify-chp/collision-report-chp-190/