Statute of limitations in New York

A statute of limitations is the legal deadline for filing a civil lawsuit. In New York the headline number is easy to remember: many personal injury cases must be filed within 3 years, set by N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 214. Stated that way, it sounds like a single date on a calendar.

The reality underneath is more layered. The 3-year figure covers a lot of ground, yet it is not the only clock in the state. Some claims run shorter, and a defamation suit has to be started within 1 year. Others run longer, with most contract disputes carrying a 6-year window. The deadline that applies depends on the kind of harm you are describing and the legal theory behind it.

Miss the applicable period and a court can dismiss the case, no matter how strong the facts. This guide walks through the civil deadlines shown in the table above and explains, in general terms, how New York decides when each clock begins. It is general information, not legal advice.

In most New York cases the clock starts on the date the claim accrues. Accrual usually means the moment the harm happens: the day of an accident, or the day a contract is breached. From that date, the statutory period runs forward until it expires.

Not every injury announces itself right away. New York recognizes that some harms stay hidden, and the law handles those situations through discovery-type rules that can move the starting point to when a person knew, or reasonably should have known, about the injury or its cause. These rules are narrow and depend on the claim type, so they do not apply across the board.

Fraud is one example built into the table. The period there is the greater of 6 years from the fraudulent act or 2 years from the point the fraud was, or could have been, discovered. Counting can turn on small details, including weekends, holidays, and how a particular event is dated. Confirming the start date with a licensed New York attorney is a sensible step when anything is unclear.

New York pauses or extends some deadlines through rules known as tolling. When a claimant is a minor, the clock is generally held until that person reaches adulthood, though certain claims place their own limits on how far that reach extends. A similar pause can apply when someone is under a legal disability that prevents them from managing a lawsuit.

A defendant's absence from the state can also matter. If the person you would sue leaves New York after the claim accrues, the time spent away may not count against your window, which effectively lengthens the period you have to file.

Claims against government bodies follow a stricter track. Suing a city, a county, a state agency, or a public authority often requires a formal notice of claim filed well before any lawsuit, and the deadlines are usually much shorter than those for private defendants. Those specific windows are set by statute and are not listed in the table above, so treat any public-entity matter as time-sensitive from the start. Because these exceptions are fact-specific, checking the current statute is worthwhile before you rely on any of them.

Personal injury claims cover physical harm to a person, from car crashes to slip-and-fall incidents. New York sets a 3-year deadline under N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 214. Property damage sits in the same section and shares that 3-year period, covering harm to things you own rather than to your body.

Wrongful death actions, brought on behalf of a deceased person's estate, run for 2 years under N.Y. E.P.T.L. § 5-4.1. Medical malpractice, which involves injury from professional care that fell below the accepted standard, has a period of two and a half years under N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 214-a.

Contract disputes get a longer runway. Both written and oral agreements carry a 6-year deadline under N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 213. Fraud claims appear at N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 213(8), and the period is the greater of 6 years from the fraud or 2 years from when it was discovered.

Defamation, whether written as libel or spoken as slander, has the shortest window on this page. A claim must be filed within 1 year under N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 215(3). Because a single event can sometimes support more than one theory, the label you choose can change the deadline that controls.

Time is the one resource you cannot recover once a deadline passes, so early steps matter. Start by preserving records that show what happened and when: medical bills, repair estimates, photos, contracts, emails, and any correspondence tied to the dispute. Note the dates on everything, because the accrual date often decides which period applies.

Next, confirm the category your situation falls into. The same set of facts can point to more than one claim type, and each type may carry a different clock. Reading the exact statute for your claim is a reasonable way to check the current rule, since the table above lists the citations you would look up.

Public-entity matters and anything touching fraud or hidden injury deserve extra caution, because their timing rules are less obvious. When the deadline is close, or when you are not sure which one governs, talking with a licensed New York attorney gives you a clear read on the period that fits your situation. This guide offers general information about New York's civil filing deadlines and does not tell you what to do in your own case.