By Nicholas J. Rose, Esq. · NY Bar 2003

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How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Case in NY?

By Nicholas J. Rose, Esq.

The deadline for filing a personal injury case in New York sounds like a simple question with a simple answer. It isn't. The "three years" most people have heard is sometimes right, sometimes wrong, and sometimes the case is already over by the time anyone calls a lawyer. In twenty-two years of practice, I've turned down a small number of cases where the law was on the client's side but the deadline wasn't, and there was nothing left to do.

I'd rather you read this and not need it than not read it and find out the hard way.

The general rule: three years

For most personal injury cases in New York against a private defendant, a private driver, a private business, a private landlord, a private property owner, you have three years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. The statute is CPLR §214(5). After three years, the case is gone. No motion can save it. No exception, in most circumstances, will revive it.

Three years feels like a long time. It isn't. Building a personal injury case takes time, medical records, expert reports, investigation, demand packages, possible pre-litigation negotiation. The lawyers I trust generally want a case in the door at least six to twelve months before the SOL runs to do clean work. Earlier is better.

The 90-day trap most people don't know about

Here's the rule that ends more New York personal injury cases than any other.

If your case involves the City of New York or any of its agencies, you have 90 days from the date of the accident to file a Notice of Claim under General Municipal Law §50-e. Ninety days. Not three years. Ninety days.

Categories of cases that trigger the 90-day rule:

MTA bus or subway accidents. New York City Transit Authority is a public benefit corporation subject to the same rule.
NYC sanitation truck, NYPD vehicle, FDNY vehicle.
NYC sidewalk or roadway if the City is the defendant (which depends on the abutting property, see our piece on NYC sidewalk falls and §7-210).
NYC public housing (NYCHA), apartment falls, lobby falls, elevator failures.
NYC public schools (DOE), school construction projects, playground falls, premises issues.
NYC parks and public buildings.
NYC hospitals (HHC), for medical malpractice claims against city hospitals, though the deadline is slightly different.

The 90-day Notice of Claim is the gate. Miss it and the rest of the timeline doesn't matter. Your case is over before you knew you had one.

The lawsuit itself, after the Notice of Claim, must be filed within 1 year and 90 days of the accident, under GML §50-i. Total timeline: 90 days for the notice, then about a year more for the lawsuit. Both deadlines are non-extendable in most circumstances.

This is the deadline that gets missed. People who get hit by an MTA bus assume they have three years. People who fall in NYCHA assume they have three years. People who get hurt on a NYC DOE construction project assume they have three years. They have ninety days.

State and federal government, different clocks

If your case involves the State of New York (state-owned roadways, SUNY hospitals, state buildings), you file a separate kind of claim in the New York Court of Claims. The general deadline is 90 days from accrual under Court of Claims Act §10, but the specific timing depends on the type of claim.

If your case involves a federal vehicle, federal employee, or federal property, you file under the Federal Tort Claims Act with a deadline of two years from accrual, after exhausting administrative remedies. The procedure is different from state-court litigation.

If you don't know whether the defendant is private, city, state, or federal, that's the first question to ask a lawyer. The answer determines which clock is running.

Wrongful death, two years

Wrongful death cases run on a separate timeline. Under EPTL §5-4.1, the personal representative of the decedent's estate has two years from the date of death to file. Note that this is not two years from the accident, it's two years from the date of death. If a person was injured in 2024 and died from those injuries in 2026, the wrongful death clock runs from 2026.

There's a related personal injury claim, sometimes called a "survival action", that the estate can bring on behalf of the decedent for the pain, suffering, and damages the decedent experienced before death. That claim runs on a different timeline.

Medical malpractice, two and a half years

Medical malpractice has its own statute of limitations. Under CPLR §214-a, the deadline is generally two years and six months from the date of the malpractice. Several extensions can apply:

Continuous treatment doctrine. If you continued receiving treatment from the same provider for the same condition, the clock runs from the last date of treatment, not the date of the alleged malpractice.
Foreign object exception. If a foreign object (a sponge, an instrument) was left inside you during surgery, the clock runs from one year after discovery.
Lavern's Law (2018). For cancer misdiagnosis cases, the clock runs from the date of discovery, not the date of the original misdiagnosis.

Medical malpractice cases are technically and procedurally complex. Don't assume you have the standard three years.

Toxic tort and latent injury, discovery rule

For some categories of injury, toxic exposure, asbestos, certain chemicals, certain pharmaceuticals, the clock runs from the date of discovery of the injury, not the date of exposure. CPLR §214-c is the controlling statute. The mechanics are case-specific. If you have a delayed-onset injury you suspect was caused by an exposure or product, talk to a lawyer about which clock applies.

Minors, the 18th-birthday rule

If the injured person is a minor (under 18), the statute of limitations is generally tolled until the child's 18th birthday. The child then has the standard SOL period from that date to file. CPLR §208.

Important caveat: for cases against the City of New York or other public entities, the 90-day Notice of Claim deadline still applies even for minors, with limited exceptions for very young children. A parent or guardian can file the Notice of Claim on behalf of a minor.

What happens if you missed the deadline

The honest answer: in most cases, your civil claim is over. Courts in New York rarely reopen filings on equitable grounds when the SOL has run.

A few narrow exceptions sometimes apply:

Equitable tolling for fraud, duress, or active concealment by the defendant.
Late Notice of Claim can sometimes be filed under GML §50-e(5) by motion, but the court has discretion and the standard is hard.
Continuous treatment in malpractice cases.
Mental incapacity tolling for plaintiffs who were genuinely incapacitated during the SOL period.

If you think you missed a deadline, talk to a lawyer immediately. Don't assume the case is dead and don't assume it's alive. Get the legal answer.

What this means for you

Treat every personal injury case as if a shorter deadline might apply. Call a lawyer in the first week, definitely in the first month. The free consultation costs nothing. The clock that runs while you wait is real.

If your case involves the City of New York, the MTA, NYCHA, the DOE, or any government body, the 90-day deadline starts the day of the accident. Don't lose that case to a calendar.

When to talk to a personal injury lawyer

For a free consultation in English or Spanish, call 718-261-0546 or contact me through the intake form. The first call covers what happened, what kind of defendant is involved, and what deadline is running. No fee unless we recover.

Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury in New York