The statute of limitations is the one issue in a personal injury case that no amount of evidence can fix. Miss it and the claim is over, regardless of how badly you were hurt or how clearly the other side was at fault. Connecticut’s deadlines are shorter than many people assume, and several situations carry notice requirements that expire in 90 days. This guide covers which deadline applies to which claim.
The General Rule: Two Years, With a Three Year Ceiling
Most Connecticut injury claims fall under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-584. The statute gives you two years from the date the injury is first sustained or discovered, or should reasonably have been discovered.
But there is a second clock running at the same time. The statute also says no action may be brought more than three years from the date of the act or omission complained of. This is a statute of repose, and it is an absolute outer boundary. In an injury that surfaces years later, the three year limit can extinguish the claim even though you discovered the harm only recently and are still well inside your two year window.
This matters most in medical malpractice, toxic exposure, and cases where damage develops slowly. In a car crash, both clocks usually start the same day, so the two year date is the one to watch.
Wrongful Death Runs on a Different Clock
Wrongful death is governed by Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-555, and the timing is not the same. The action must be brought within two years from the date of death, with an outer limit of five years from the date of the act or omission.
Two other features of the statute catch families off guard. Only the executor or administrator of the estate can bring the claim, not surviving relatives individually, which means someone has to be appointed through probate before the case can be filed. That process takes time you may not have budgeted. The statute also removes the time limitation entirely in certain cases where the responsible party was convicted, or found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, of specified homicide offenses.
Our wrongful death page explains the probate step and what damages the estate can recover.
Claims Against Cities, Towns, and the State: 90 Days
This is where good claims die. If your injury came from a defective road, bridge, or sidewalk, ordinary negligence law does not apply and neither does the ordinary timeline.
For a municipal road or sidewalk, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 13a-149 requires written notice to the town clerk or a selectman within 90 days of the injury, and the notice must describe the injury, the cause, and the time and place. The lawsuit itself must be filed within two years. Courts treat the notice requirement as jurisdictional and construe it strictly. A late notice, or one that fails to describe the location precisely, can end the case before the merits are ever reached.
For a state highway, the parallel statute requires written notice to the Commissioner of Transportation within 90 days, filed through the CTDOT claims process. Other claims against the state generally go to the Office of the Claims Commissioner, which carries its own one year notice requirement.
Highway defect claims are also harder to win on the merits, because the defect generally must be the sole cause of the injury and the plaintiff carries the burden of showing due care. If a pothole, ice, or a broken sidewalk contributed to your fall or crash, get advice quickly rather than after the 90 days run.
Connecticut Does Not Pause the Clock for Children
Many websites state that a minor’s deadline waits until age 18. That is the rule in most states. It is not the rule here.
Connecticut appellate authority interpreting § 52-584 holds that the statute provides no exception for minors. The legislature has considered bills to add minority tolling and has not enacted one. Practically, this means a parent who assumes a hurt child can decide about a lawsuit years from now may find the claim already gone.
If your child was injured, treat the two year deadline as running from the injury date, not from any future birthday. Our pages on traumatic brain injury and birth injury claims cover injuries where this comes up most often.
Filing Is Not the Same as Calling a Lawyer
In Connecticut, an action is commenced when process is served on the defendant, not when paperwork is drafted. Service takes time. A marshal has to locate and serve the defendant, and if the defendant has moved or the correct corporate entity is unclear, that can take weeks.
Building the case takes longer still. Records must be gathered, liability investigated, and in malpractice cases a written opinion from a similar health care provider must be obtained before suit. A lawyer contacted three weeks before the deadline is working with almost nothing.
There are also deadlines that come from contracts rather than statutes. Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims are governed by your own policy, which may impose its own notice and filing requirements. See our guide to dealing with insurance companies and our overview of how long a Connecticut case takes for what the timeline looks like once a claim is underway.
Find Out Which Deadline Applies to You
The deadlines above are the common ones, not all of them. Product liability, construction defects, workers’ compensation, and claims involving multiple defendants each carry their own rules, and the correct answer sometimes depends on facts that are not obvious from the outside, such as who owned the road or which entity employed the driver.
If you are unsure how much time you have, that uncertainty is itself a reason to ask now. Speak with a Waterbury personal injury lawyer or a car accident lawyer about your specific situation. Etemi Law also represents injured people in Hartford, New Haven, and Danbury. Contact us for a free consultation.