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By David Gammill · Last reviewed: August 15, 2026
Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 is California’s two-year statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death claims. Most injury victims have two years from the date of injury, and families have two years from the date of death, to file suit. Miss the deadline, and the claim is almost always barred, no matter how strong it is.
The full current text of Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 (in force since January 1, 2003, and unchanged since):
Within two years: An action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another.
Source: Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, California Legislative Information (verified August 15, 2026).
One sentence, enormous consequences. That single provision sets the filing deadline for the overwhelming majority of California injury lawsuits: negligence claims and intentional torts alike. “Wrongful act or neglect” reaches both. The drunk driver who hits you and the property owner who never fixed the broken stairway are covered by the same two-year clock.
Section 335.1 governs almost every claim a California personal injury firm handles:
What it does not govern matters just as much. Claims against public entities layer a much shorter administrative deadline on top (more below). Childhood sexual assault claims follow an entirely separate framework. And medical negligence claims fall under a distinct statute with its own rules, a regime outside the scope of this guide.
| Claim type | Filing deadline | Governing law |
|---|---|---|
| Personal injury (negligence or intentional tort) | 2 years from the date of injury | CCP § 335.1 |
| Wrongful death | 2 years from the date of death | CCP § 335.1 |
| Any claim against a government entity | Administrative claim within 6 months, then strict suit deadlines | Gov. Code §§ 911.2, 945.6 |
| Childhood sexual assault (on or after Jan 1, 2024) | No time limit | CCP § 340.1 (AB 452) |
| Childhood sexual assault (before Jan 1, 2024) | Age 40 or 5 years from discovery, whichever is later | CCP § 340.11 |
The limitations period begins at “accrual,” the moment the cause of action comes into existence. For most injury claims, accrual is simple: the clock starts on the date of the injury. Rear-ended on Hawthorne Boulevard on March 1, 2026? Absent an exception, suit must be filed by March 1, 2028. In a wrongful death case, the claim accrues on the date of death, even when the fatal injury happened earlier.
Two years sounds like plenty of time. In practice it isn’t. Evidence disappears, witnesses scatter, and insurance negotiations routinely eat months. And here is the point injury victims most often get wrong: settlement negotiations do not pause the deadline. An insurance adjuster can discuss your claim right up to the day the statute runs and then lawfully deny everything, because a time-barred claim has no leverage left. The steps you take in the first days matter too. Our guide on what to do immediately after a car accident covers preserving the evidence your future claim depends on.
Sometimes an injury or its cause isn’t apparent when it happens. California’s delayed discovery rule addresses that. Under the California Supreme Court’s controlling decision in Fox v. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. (2005) 35 Cal.4th 797, a cause of action accrues, and the two years begin, when the plaintiff has “reason to suspect an injury and some wrongful cause.” If a reasonable investigation at that point would not have revealed the factual basis for a particular claim, the deadline on that claim is tolled until a reasonable investigation would have revealed it.
The standard is suspicion, not certainty. In Jolly v. Eli Lilly & Co. (1988) 44 Cal.3d 1103, the court explained that a plaintiff need not know the specific facts needed to prove the claim; once she suspects wrongdoing, “she must go find the facts; she cannot wait for the facts to find her.” In plain terms: the moment you suspect that someone’s wrongdoing injured you, the law expects you to investigate. Waiting for confirmation does not extend your deadline.
Discovery-rule arguments are heavily litigated and fact-intensive. The plaintiff bears the burden of pleading and proving both the time and manner of discovery and the inability to have discovered the claim earlier despite reasonable diligence. If you think your deadline may already be in question, that is a conversation to have with an attorney now, not after more time passes.
“Tolling” pauses the limitations clock. California recognizes several statutory grounds:
One critical caveat: § 352’s minority and incapacity tolling does not apply to claims that require a government claim. Section 352(b) says so expressly. A minor injured by a public entity still faces the six-month administrative claim deadline, one of the harshest traps in California injury law.
The two-year statute is not your real deadline when a public entity is the defendant. Under Government Code § 911.2, a claim for personal injury or wrongful death must first be presented to the entity within six months of accrual, and Government Code § 945.6 then sets strict deadlines for filing suit after the claim is rejected. Our companion explainer on California’s government claim deadline walks through the full sequence, the late-claim relief process, and the wrong-entity risk.
This rule reaches more defendants than most people expect. In the South Bay alone, a crash involving a City of Torrance vehicle, an injury on Torrance Unified School District property, a collision with an LA Metro bus, or a dangerous condition on a Caltrans-maintained stretch of PCH or the 405 all trigger the Government Claims Act: six months, not two years. If there is any chance a public entity is involved in your injury, treat the clock as already short.
Section 335.1’s two-year period expressly covers actions “for the death of” an individual, running from the date of death. The right to sue belongs to the decedent’s surviving family members and heirs as defined by CCP § 377.60, a standing question with its own complications. For the complete wrongful death timeline, including how survival actions differ, how the government-claim rules interact with a death case, and what happens when the fatal injury and the death occur in different years, see our full guide to the California wrongful death filing deadline. And if you are dealing with the loss of a family member in the South Bay, our Torrance wrongful death attorney page explains how we handle these cases.
With narrow exceptions, the claim dies. A defendant who raises the statute of limitations wins dismissal regardless of how clear their fault is or how severe the injuries are. Courts do not weigh the merits of a time-barred claim. Insurers know this, which is why a claim near its deadline loses settlement value by the week: the closer the statute, the less reason the defense has to pay anything at all.
If your deadline has passed or is close, do not conclude on your own that you have no case. Accrual dates, the discovery rule, and tolling grounds are exactly where experienced counsel finds room the insurance company will never volunteer. A short consultation settles the question either way.
Until 2003, California gave injury victims only one year to sue, under former CCP § 340(3). Senate Bill 688 (Stats. 2002, ch. 448) created § 335.1 and doubled the period, effective January 1, 2003. The section has not been amended since. The two-year rule stated here is current California law as of the review date above. Older articles, and even some out-of-state websites, still describe a one-year California deadline; that has been wrong for more than two decades.
If you were injured, or lost a family member, anywhere in Torrance or the South Bay, the safest time to confirm your deadline is now. Talk to a Torrance personal injury attorney about your accident, or start with our Torrance car accident attorney page if a crash brought you here. Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149. There are no upfront legal fees; a fee is collected only if we win, under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law.
Disclaimer: This article is educational and informational in nature. It does not constitute legal advice for any specific situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Limitations deadlines are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own dates and circumstances.