Pennsylvania Statute of Limitations FAQ

Two years from the date of the injury for most personal injury claims, under 42 Pa. C.S. § 5524. That covers car and truck crashes, motorcycle and bicycle collisions, pedestrian injuries, slip and fall and other premises cases, dog bites, and product liability claims. The deadline is jurisdictional in effect: if a complaint is not filed in the Court of Common Pleas within the period, the claim is almost always extinguished no matter how strong the liability evidence is. Negotiating with an insurer does not extend it, and an adjuster telling you the file is still open does not extend it. Only filing suit stops the clock.

Ordinarily on the date of the injury. Pennsylvania's discovery rule can delay accrual where an injury and its cause could not reasonably have been known at the time, but the rule is narrower than most people assume. Courts ask whether a reasonably diligent person would have discovered the injury and its cause, and the burden is on the plaintiff. The clearest applications are toxic exposure, retained surgical objects, and misdiagnosis cases where harm surfaced years later. What does not extend the clock is not realizing how serious an injury would become, or not knowing you had a legal claim. Once you know you were hurt and something caused it, the clock generally runs.

Yes, and this trips up more families than any other rule. A wrongful death claim under 42 Pa. C.S. § 8301 must be filed within two years of the date of death. A survival action under § 8302 belongs to the estate and runs from the date the decedent's own claim accrued — usually the date of injury. When someone is injured and dies months or years later from those injuries, the survival action can expire long before the wrongful death claim does. Families who assume both clocks began at the funeral lose the survival count entirely, which is often the larger of the two. If a loved one lingered before dying, get the dates reviewed immediately.

Much shorter notice requirements. If your claim is against a Commonwealth agency such as PennDOT or a state university, or against a local agency such as a city, township, county, transit authority, or school district, you must provide written notice of the claim within six months of the injury under 42 Pa. C.S. § 5522, with the Sovereign Immunity and Political Subdivision Tort Claims Acts at §§ 8522 and 8542 governing what claims are permitted at all. The two-year filing deadline still applies on top of the notice requirement. Immunity exceptions are narrow and statutory damage caps apply. Cases against SEPTA, PennDOT, or a municipal vehicle need a lawyer within weeks, not months.

Pennsylvania tolls the statute of limitations for minors. Under 42 Pa. C.S. § 5533(b), the limitations period generally does not begin to run until the child turns eighteen, which means the child's own claim can typically be filed until age twenty. That is a meaningful protection, but it does not extend everything. A parent's separate claim for the child's medical expenses is not tolled and runs on the ordinary two-year clock from the injury. The government notice requirements also are not forgiving. And as a practical matter, waiting years to investigate a case means witnesses move, video is deleted, and the scene changes. I do not recommend relying on tolling as a strategy.

Workers' compensation runs on its own schedule and it is far shorter at the front end. Notify your employer of a work injury as soon as possible — within 21 days to receive benefits from the date of injury, and no later than 120 days to preserve the claim at all under 77 P.S. § 631.1. A claim petition generally must be filed within three years of the injury. Importantly, comp deadlines are separate from any third-party negligence claim arising out of the same event. On a construction site, the third-party case against a general contractor, another trade, or an equipment manufacturer still runs on the two-year clock in 42 Pa. C.S. § 5524. Both must be tracked.

Sometimes, but the exceptions are narrow and courts apply them strictly. Recognized bases include the discovery rule for injuries that could not reasonably have been known, minority under 42 Pa. C.S. § 5533(b), legal incapacity in limited circumstances, and fraudulent concealment where a defendant actively hid the facts giving rise to the claim. A defendant's absence from the Commonwealth may also affect the analysis. What does not toll the clock: ongoing medical treatment, pending settlement talks, an open insurance claim, a criminal prosecution of the at-fault party, or not having found a lawyer yet. Treat every one of these as a reason to move faster, not slower.

Talk to a lawyer before you conclude the case is over, because the accrual date is not always the date you think it is. I look for a later accrual under the discovery rule, defendants with different applicable periods, contract-based claims such as underinsured motorist coverage that may run longer, tolling for a minor claimant, and whether the injury is part of a continuing course of conduct. Sometimes there is a viable path and sometimes there is not, and I will tell you plainly which one it is. What I will not do is take a case I cannot help with. The review costs nothing.

Far sooner than the legal deadline suggests. The evidence that decides cases has a much shorter life than two years. Commercial truck ECM data can be overwritten within days and driver logs need only be kept six months. Store and intersection surveillance is commonly purged in seven to thirty days. Construction sites change weekly. Skid marks and debris fields disappear with the next rain. Witness memory fades and phone numbers change. In a government case, you have six months to serve written notice. I would rather review a case in the first week and tell you it is straightforward than meet you at month twenty-three with the proof already gone.