Two years in most cases. A claim against a city, county, school district or state agency needs notice within six months, and a city’s own charter can make that shorter.
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General rules only. Exceptions can make a deadline shorter or longer, and the start date is not always the day of the injury.
Texas uses one period for almost everything that follows a crash or a fall. The injury claim, a death claim and the claim for vehicle damage each have two years.
What differs is the starting point and what has to happen first. A death claim counts from the date of death. A claim against a governmental unit needs notice long before any lawsuit. And a claim against your own insurer for uninsured motorist benefits follows contract rules, with a longer limit that does not move the two years for suing the driver.
These are general rules. When a clock starts, and whether an exception applies, depends on facts this page does not have.
Each rule is shown with its source. The note under it says what the rule means in practice.
Two years from the day the claim arises. For most crashes and falls that is the day of the injury. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a)
The two years are for filing a lawsuit in court. Opening an insurance claim does not meet the deadline, and negotiating with an insurance company does not stop the clock.
Two years, counted from the date of death. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(b)
When the person lived for a time after being hurt, the death claim still counts from the day they died. Families in Texas also face an earlier date that decides who files.
Who files, and the three month point.
The surviving spouse, children and parents. Any of them can file for the benefit of all. If none has filed within three calendar months of the death, the executor or administrator of the estate must file unless all of them ask that no claim be brought. Siblings and grandparents are not included. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 71.004
Two years for damage to a vehicle or other property. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a)
California and Washington give three years for a damaged vehicle. Texas does not. Here the car and the injury share the same two years.
A city, county, school district or state agency must receive notice of the claim within six months of the incident. The notice describes the injury or damage, the time and place, and what happened. A city’s charter can set its own notice period, which may be shorter, so do not assume you have the full six months. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101
This is a notice requirement, and it comes on top of the lawsuit deadline. Find out which governmental unit was involved, and if it is a city, check its charter right away.
A claim against your own insurer for uninsured or underinsured motorist benefits is a contract claim, generally subject to a four year limit. The deadline to sue the driver who caused the crash is still two years. Franco v. Allstate Ins. Co., 505 S.W.2d 789 (Tex. 1974); Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.051
Two clocks run side by side. The longer one is for the contract claim against your insurer. The shorter one, two years, is still the deadline to sue the driver. Do not let the first hide the second.
If the injured person was under 18 when the claim arose, the time before their 18th birthday is generally not counted against the two years. That rule does not apply the same way to medical malpractice claims, and it should not be assumed to extend the notice deadline for a claim against a government agency. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.001
Read the two cautions in the rule closely. Until a lawyer has looked at the facts, treat the six month government notice as running for a child the same as for an adult.
Medical malpractice claims have their own rules: generally two years, with a separate rule for children under 12 and an outer limit of 10 years. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.251
These limits apply to claims about health care. An ordinary crash or fall claim against the person who caused it stays on the two year rule.
State law gives six months to give notice of a claim against a governmental unit, and it also upholds the notice periods written into city charters. Check the charter of the city involved right away. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101(a), (b)
Enter the date it happened. The checker applies Texas’s general rule to that date and shows the government claim step when one may apply. It does not know your facts, so it cannot give you your own deadline.
Primary sources for the rules on this page. Checked on the dates shown.
This site gives general legal information. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Deadlines depend on the facts. Some are much shorter than the general rule. Do not rely on this page to decide how long you can wait.
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