What is a statute of limitations?

Typical periods

• Personal injury — one to six years, most often two or three.
• Medical malpractice — usually two to three years, plus a separate outer limit measured from the treatment itself.
• Written contracts — often four to six years; oral contracts are shorter.
• Property damage — commonly two to six years.
• Claims against a government body — an administrative notice is often due within 60 to 180 days, long before the ordinary deadline.

When the clock starts

Usually on the date of the injury. The discovery rule moves the start to the day you knew, or reasonably should have known, that you were harmed and what caused it — which is how a retained surgical instrument or an asbestos illness can be actionable decades later. The clock may also pause: while the injured person is a minor, while they lack capacity, or while the defendant is out of state or concealed the wrong.

The other deadline nobody mentions

A statute of repose is an absolute cut-off running from an event such as a sale, a completed building or a medical procedure. It can expire before you even know you were hurt, and the discovery rule does not extend it.

Why waiting costs more than the deadline

Long before the legal clock runs out, the evidence does. CCTV is overwritten within days or weeks, vehicles are repaired or scrapped, witnesses move and memories blur. The practical deadline for gathering proof is usually measured in weeks.