Injury Claim Deadlines in California

Every injury case we handle, from auto accidents to elder abuse, runs on one of the deadlines below. Missing the right one can end a claim no matter how strong the facts are, so it is worth knowing which clock applies to you before anything else.

How do I work out my deadline, step by step?

Write down the date and place of the injury. For most injuries, the time starts on the day you were hurt, and the place decides which agencies and which court are involved.
Ask whether any public agency could be responsible. A city or county vehicle, a public road or sidewalk, a school, a transit system or a public building all point to a public entity. If one is involved, a written claim to that entity is due within six months (Government Code 911.2), and our guide on how to file an injury claim against a city, county or the State explains each step.
Find your type of claim in the table below. Most injuries carry two years, but claims against a health care provider, for domestic violence, for libel or slander and for financial elder abuse run on their own clocks.
Check for anything that pauses or changes the clock. A minor, a person who lacks legal capacity, a felony conviction, or the death of the person responsible can each change the date, as the section on what changes the answer explains.
Set your own earlier date. Courts and agencies count to the day, and paperwork takes time to prepare, so plan to file well before the last day. Our guide on how long a personal injury case takes shows what comes after filing.
File in the right place. An injury lawsuit may be filed in the county where the injury happened or where a defendant lives (Code of Civil Procedure 395). For an injury here, that usually means the Sonoma County court, and our guide to what to expect at Sonoma County Superior Court in an injury case covers what happens after filing.

Which deadline applies to my claim?

Type of claim	Deadline	California law
Injury or death caused by someone else's wrongful act or carelessness, such as a car crash, an assault, or a fall at a store or business	2 years to file a lawsuit	Code of Civil Procedure 335.1
Injury or death caused by a public entity: the State, a county, a city, a district or another public agency	Written claim to that entity within 6 months	Government Code 911.2 and 811.2
Claim to a public entity that missed the 6 months	Written application for permission to file late, within a reasonable time and no later than 1 year	Government Code 911.4
Lawsuit after a public entity rejects the claim	6 months from the date the written rejection notice is delivered or mailed; 2 years from the injury if no written notice is given	Government Code 945.6
Injury or death caused by a health care provider's professional negligence	3 years from the injury or 1 year from when it was discovered, or should have been, whichever comes first	Code of Civil Procedure 340.5
Damages from a felony the defendant was convicted of	1 year after judgment is pronounced, unless a longer period applies	Code of Civil Procedure 340.3
The person responsible died before the deadline ran out	1 year after that person's death	Code of Civil Procedure 366.2
Libel or slander	1 year	Code of Civil Procedure 340(c)
Domestic violence	3 years from the last act of abuse, or 3 years from when you discovered (or should have discovered) that an injury came from it, whichever is later; see our guide on suing for domestic violence in California	Code of Civil Procedure 340.15
Financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult	4 years from when the abuse was discovered, or should have been discovered	Welfare and Institutions Code 15657.7
Uninsured or underinsured motorist claim under your own auto policy	Within 2 years of the crash: sue the at-fault driver, reach an agreement with your insurer, or start arbitration by written notice sent by certified mail	Insurance Code 11580.2(i)

When does the clock start, and can it be paused?

For most injuries, the time starts on the day you were hurt. California pauses it in two situations. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 352, time does not count while the injured person is a minor (under 18, per Family Code section 6500) or lacks the legal capacity to make decisions. An injury from a product that appears only later, such as harm from an implant or a chemical exposure, raises a different question about when the clock starts; see when the deadline starts for a product injury that shows up later.

That pause has a hard limit: it does not apply to claims against a public entity or public employee. For a child hurt by a city bus or on school property, the six-month claim rule still applies, and the time the child was a minor counts toward the one-year limit for asking to file a late claim (Government Code 911.4). Our guide on injury claims for children covers the rest of a child's case, including court approval of a settlement.

Why is the deadline so short for a city, county or the State?

Before you can sue a public entity, you must first present a written claim, and for injury or death that claim is due within six months (Government Code 911.2). "Public entity" covers the State, counties, cities, districts and other public agencies (Government Code 811.2). The entity then has 45 days to act on the claim. If it does nothing, the claim is treated as rejected on the last day of that period. The 45 days can be extended by written agreement (Government Code 912.4).

Once the entity gives written notice that it rejected the claim, you have six months from the date the notice was delivered or mailed to file a lawsuit (Government Code 945.6).

A claim that arrives after six months without a request to file late can be sent back. The entity may return it within 45 days with a written notice that it was not presented on time, and the notice tells you that your only option is to apply for permission to present a late claim (Government Code 911.3).

Where you file depends on who is responsible. A claim against the County of Sonoma goes by mail or in person to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, 575 Administration Drive, Suite 100A, Santa Rosa. The County forwards it to Risk Management for investigation and sends a letter with your claim number. Each city has its own process, and our guide for injuries in Cotati explains how the City of Cotati handles claims.

Does an open insurance claim stop the deadline?

In general, no. The deadlines above keep running while an adjuster reviews your claim, so a lawsuit or government claim may need to be filed even while settlement talks continue.

California's fair claims rules give some protection to people without a lawyer. An insurer must tell you in writing about any time limit it may rely on to deny a claim at least 60 days before that limit runs out, or at least 30 days before for an uninsured motorist claim under your own policy. That notice is not required once a lawyer represents you on the claim (California Code of Regulations, title 10, section 2695.7(f)). If the other driver had no insurance, read how uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage works, because that claim has its own two-year steps.

What if someone has died?

The same two-year rule in Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 covers an action "for the death of" a person caused by another's wrongful act or neglect. If a public entity may be responsible, the six-month written claim comes first. Our wrongful death page explains the claim itself.

The family members who may bring it are listed in Code of Civil Procedure 377.60, and our guide on who can file a wrongful death claim goes through that list. A separate claim for the person's own losses before death, the survival claim, also has its timing rules; see the deadlines that apply when someone has died.

What changes the answer?

A public agency is involved. The six-month written claim comes before any lawsuit (Government Code 911.2 and 945.4), and the lawsuit deadline then runs from the rejection (Government Code 945.6). This is the most common reason people lose claims they could have won.

The injured person is a child. For a claim against a private person or business, the two years do not run while the person is under 18 (Code of Civil Procedure 352). For a public entity, the six months still apply, but the entity must grant a late-claim application if the person was a minor during the whole six months, or during part of it if the application is presented within six months of turning 18 or a year after the claim arose, whichever comes first (Government Code 911.6(b)).

The injured person lacks legal capacity. The same pause in Code of Civil Procedure 352 applies, and Government Code 911.6(b) has a matching late-claim rule for a person who was physically or mentally incapacitated and could not present a claim because of it.

A doctor, hospital or other health care provider is responsible. The deadline is three years from the injury or one year from discovery, whichever comes first, with no more than three years except for fraud, intentional concealment or a foreign body left inside the patient (Code of Civil Procedure 340.5).

The person who caused the injury was convicted of a felony for it. A claim based on that felony may be filed within one year after judgment is pronounced, unless a longer period applies, and any restitution paid is credited against the award (Code of Civil Procedure 340.3).

The person responsible has died. The claim must be brought within one year after the date of death, and the usual limitation period no longer applies (Code of Civil Procedure 366.2). That year can be shorter or longer than the time that was left.

What could this look like? An example

For example, imagine a 16-year-old riding a bike near Cotati on March 1 who is hit by a County maintenance truck that ran a stop sign, and a second, private driver clips him a moment later.

Two clocks start. Against the County, a written claim is due within six months, so by early September. Because he was a minor during that whole period, if the claim is late the County would have to grant an application to present it late, as long as the application is made within a reasonable time and no later than one year (Government Code 911.4 and 911.6(b)(2)). Against the private driver, the two years in Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 would not start to run until his 18th birthday, because of section 352. The safe plan is still to file the County claim inside the six months and not rely on the exceptions. This example is made up to show how the rules fit together; it says nothing about any real case.

What mistakes do people make with deadlines?

Waiting for the insurance company's offer before doing anything, while the lawsuit deadline keeps running.
Treating two years as the only deadline when a county road, a city vehicle or a school was involved, and missing the six-month claim. Our guide on crashes with a government vehicle or a dangerous road explains what changes when a public agency is part of a crash.
Sending the claim to the wrong agency, such as a city when the County maintains the road.
Assuming a child's case is paused for every claim, when the pause does not reach claims against public entities.
Ignoring a letter that returns a claim as late. That letter starts the path to a late-claim application, and a court petition is due within six months after that application is denied (Government Code 946.6).
Counting a medical claim from the wrong date, when the one-year discovery rule in section 340.5 can end it first.

What should I do this week?

Write down the exact date of the injury and where it happened.
List every public agency that could be involved: a city or county vehicle, a public road or sidewalk, a public building, a school or a transit system. Our page on injury cases in Sonoma County lists the offices that take claims and reports here.
Keep every letter from an insurance company, especially any that mention a time limit, and note the date each arrived.
Ask your doctors and hospitals for copies of your records; providers must send them within 15 days of your request (Health and Safety Code 123110).
If the injured person is a child, or a family member has died, say so early, because different rules may apply.
Put the earliest deadline on a calendar with a reminder at least a month before it.

Frequently asked questions

Does filing an insurance claim count as filing my claim?

No. An insurance claim is not a lawsuit, and it is not the written claim a public entity requires. Both of those have their own deadlines, which keep running while the insurer reviews the file.

What if I missed the six-month deadline for a claim against a city or county?

You can apply to the entity for permission to present a late claim, within a reasonable time and no later than one year after the injury (Government Code 911.4). The entity has 45 days to decide, and it must grant the application in the situations listed in Government Code 911.6, such as excusable neglect without harm to its defense. If it denies the application, a petition to the court is due within six months (Government Code 946.6).

Does a criminal case against the other person change my deadline?

It can. If the person is convicted of a felony for the act that hurt you, Code of Civil Procedure 340.3 allows a claim within one year after judgment, unless a longer period applies. Waiting for the criminal case is still risky, because a conviction is never certain. Our guide on hit-and-run crashes in Sonoma or Marin County explains how restitution and a civil claim work side by side.

What is the deadline for a claim against a doctor or hospital?

Three years from the injury or one year from when it was discovered, or should have been, whichever comes first (Code of Civil Procedure 340.5). For a child injured before age six, the claim may be filed within three years or before the eighth birthday, whichever is longer.

What happens if the driver who hit me dies?

The claim generally must be brought within one year after that person's death, against their estate or insurer, and that one-year rule replaces the usual limitation period (Code of Civil Procedure 366.2).

Where would my lawsuit be filed?

In the superior court of the county where the injury happened or where a defendant lives when the case is filed (Code of Civil Procedure 395). For an injury in Sonoma County, that is usually the Sonoma County court in Santa Rosa.

Is there a separate deadline for elder abuse?

Financial abuse of an elder or dependent adult has four years from discovery (Welfare and Institutions Code 15657.7). Physical abuse and neglect follow the usual injury deadlines, and our guide on what the Elder Abuse Act adds to a claim explains the extra remedies.

If you or a loved one has been injured and you are not sure which deadline applies, contact Young Law Group today at (707) 343-0556 or through our contact page to schedule your free consultation and learn how we can help.

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