California Personal Injury Statute of Limitations: Two Years Under CCP § 335.1

What the statute says

Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 sets a two-year limitations period for “an action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another.” This is the provision that governs the ordinary negligence-based personal injury case in California — motor vehicle collisions, premises liability, and most other tort claims for bodily injury. The two-year period replaced the former one-year period effective January 1, 2003. Claims for injury to personal property, by contrast, are governed by the three-year period in Code of Civil Procedure section 338, and contract-based claims have their own periods.

When the clock starts

The general rule is that a cause of action accrues, and the limitations period begins, when the wrongful act causes injury — typically the date of the incident. California also applies the discovery rule: where a plaintiff neither knew nor, through the exercise of reasonable diligence, should have known of the facts constituting the injury and its negligent cause, accrual is postponed until that discovery. Whether the discovery rule applies, and when a plaintiff is on inquiry notice, is fact-specific and should be analyzed on the record of each matter.

Key exceptions and tolling

• Minors and incapacity.Under Code of Civil Procedure section 352, if a person entitled to bring an action is a minor or lacks legal capacity to make decisions at the time the cause of action accrues, the time of that disability is generally not counted, subject to statutory limits and to different rules for claims against public entities.
• Defendant absent from the state.Code of Civil Procedure section 351 provides that if a defendant is out of the state when the cause of action accrues, or departs afterward, the period of absence is generally not counted — though its application has been limited by case law in some interstate contexts.
• Medical malpractice.Injuries caused by a health care provider's professional negligence are governed by Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5, not section 335.1, and carry a different limitations structure and a pre-suit notice requirement.
• Claims against government entities.A claim against a California public entity or employee generally requires an administrative claim under Government Code section 911.2 — commonly within six months — before suit, with a shortened period to file after the claim is rejected.
• Equitable tolling and estoppel.California recognizes equitable tolling and equitable estoppel in defined circumstances; availability depends on the facts.

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