Statute of Limitations » Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations by State

Select your state to see how long you have to file a medical malpractice claim — or scroll down for the full table, every deadline linked to its official statute.

Not legal advice — and missing this deadline can end your case. These are general filing deadlines under each state's statute. Your actual deadline can be shorter or longer: many states toll the clock for minors, apply a "discovery rule" when an injury isn't immediately obvious, or give you far less time to sue a government agency. Confirm your specific deadline with a licensed attorney in your state before relying on any date here.

All 50 states

State Deadline Discovery rule / outer limit Citation
Alabama 2 years 6 months from discovery, if not reasonably discoverable within the base 2 years
4 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		Ala. Code § 6-5-482(a)
Alaska 2 years — Alaska Stat. § 09.10.070
Arizona 2 years — A.R.S. § 12-542
Arkansas 2 years — Ark. Code Ann. § 16-114-203
California 3 years 1 year from discovery, whichever occurs FIRST (earlier) of the two Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 340.5
Colorado 2 years extended if the act was knowingly concealed
3 years from the act or omission, regardless of discovery 		C.R.S. § 13-80-102.5
Connecticut 2 years — Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-584
Delaware 2 years 3 years from injury if it wasn't reasonably discoverable within the first 2 years 18 Del. C. § 6856
District of Columbia 3 years — D.C. Code § 12-301(8)
Florida 2 years 2 years from discovery
4 years from the incident, regardless of discovery (except fraud/concealment, extended 2 years from discovery up to 7 years total) 		Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(c)
Georgia 2 years —
5 years from the act, regardless of discovery (statute of repose) 		Ga. Code Ann. § 9-3-71
Hawaii 2 years from discovery —
6 years from the act, regardless of discovery (unless concealed) 		Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7.3(a)
Idaho 2 years — Idaho Code § 5-219
Illinois 2 years from discovery —
4 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		735 ILCS 5/13-212(a)
Indiana 2 years — Ind. Code § 34-18-7-1(b)
Iowa 2 years from discovery —
6 years from the act, regardless of discovery (except foreign-object cases) 		Iowa Code § 614.1(9)(a)
Kansas 2 years —
4 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		K.S.A. § 60-513(c)
Kentucky 1 year — KRS § 413.140(1)(e)
Louisiana 1 year 1 year from discovery
3 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		La. Rev. Stat. § 9:5628(A)
Maryland 5 years 3 years from discovery, if earlier than 5 years from injury Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-109(a)
Massachusetts 3 years —
7 years from the act, regardless of discovery (except foreign-object cases) 		Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 4
Michigan 2 years 6 months from discovery, if later
6 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.5838a(2)
Minnesota 4 years — Minn. Stat. § 541.076(b)
Mississippi 2 years from discovery — Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-36
Missouri 2 years 2 years from discovery, for foreign-object or failure-to-inform-of-test-results cases specifically Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.105
Montana 2 years 2 years from discovery, if later
5 years from the injury, regardless of discovery 		Mont. Code Ann. § 27-2-205(1)
Nebraska 2 years 1 year from discovery, if not reasonably discoverable within the base 2 years
10 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-222
Nevada 3 years 1 year from discovery, whichever occurs FIRST (earlier) of the two Nev. Rev. Stat. § 41A.097(2)
New Hampshire 3 years 3 years from discovery, if the injury wasn't reasonably discoverable at the time of the act N.H. Rev. Stat. § 508:4
New Jersey 2 years — N.J. Stat. § 2A:14-2
New Mexico 3 years — N.M. Stat. § 41-5-13
New York 2 years, 6 months — N.Y. CPLR § 214-A
North Carolina 3 years —
4 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-15(c)
North Dakota 2 years —
6 years from the act, regardless of discovery (unless fraudulently concealed) 		N.D. Cent. Code § 28-01-18(3)
Ohio 1 year 1 year from discovery, if not reasonably discoverable within the first 3 years
4 years from the act, regardless of discovery (with narrow discovery/foreign-object exceptions) 		Ohio Rev. Code § 2305.113
Oklahoma 2 years from discovery — Okla. Stat. tit. 76, § 18
Oregon 2 years from discovery — Or. Rev. Stat. § 12.110(4)
Pennsylvania 2 years — 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5524(2)
Rhode Island 3 years 3 years from discovery, if not reasonably discoverable at the time R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-1-14.1
South Carolina 3 years 3 years from discovery, if later
6 years from the treatment, regardless of discovery (foreign-object cases instead get 2 years from discovery, with no earlier cutoff) 		S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-545(A)
South Dakota 2 years — S.D. Codified Laws § 15-2-14.1
Tennessee 1 year 1 year from discovery, if not discovered within the base 1 year
3 years from the act, regardless of discovery (except fraudulent concealment or a foreign object) 		Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-116(a)
Texas 2 years —
10 years from the act, regardless of discovery (statute of repose) 		Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.251(a)
Utah 2 years from discovery —
4 years from the act, regardless of discovery 		Utah Code § 78B-3-404(1)
Vermont 3 years 2 years from discovery, if later
7 years from the incident, regardless of discovery (except fraudulent concealment) 		12 V.S.A. § 1909
Virginia 2 years extended 1 year from discovery for foreign-object, fraud/concealment, or cancer-misdiagnosis cases specifically Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-243(C)
Washington 3 years — RCW § 4.16.350
West Virginia 2 years up to 2 years from discovery, if later than 2 years from injury
10 years from the injury, regardless of discovery 		W. Va. Code § 55-7B-4(a)
Wisconsin 3 years 1 year from discovery, if later
5 years from the act or omission, regardless of discovery 		Wis. Stat. § 893.55(1m)
Wyoming 2 years up to 2 years from discovery, if not reasonably discoverable within the base 2 years Wyo. Stat. § 1-3-107(a)
About this data: Each period and citation above was extracted by hand from the actual statute text in our statutes database (sourced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset, Vaquill AI, CC BY 4.0) and cross-checked against that text, rather than copied from another site's chart — where we found a state's citation didn't match what's commonly cited elsewhere (a recent law change, for example), we used the current statute. Where a state's source text isn't in our database yet, we say so instead of linking to something we haven't verified.