Texas gives you two years from the date of an injury to file most personal injury lawsuits — but that simple rule has several exceptions that can shorten or extend your actual deadline. Missing the real deadline for your specific situation can end a valid claim before it’s heard, so it’s worth understanding which version of the rule applies to you.
The General Rule: Two Years From the Date of Injury
Under Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 16.003, most personal injury claims — car accidents, slip and falls, product injuries, and similar cases — must be filed within two years of the date the injury occurred. This is a hard statutory deadline. With rare exceptions, a court will dismiss a case filed even one day late, regardless of how strong the underlying claim is.
If the Injured Person Is a Minor
Texas law tolls (pauses) the two-year clock for injuries to a minor. Under the same chapter of the Civil Practice & Remedies Code, the limitations period doesn’t begin running until the injured person turns 18, meaning a minor generally has until their 20th birthday to file suit on their own injury claim. This does not mean waiting is a good strategy — evidence and witness memory fade regardless of the legal deadline — but it does mean a family should not assume a child’s claim is time-barred just because more than two years have passed since the accident.
Suing a Government Entity Works on a Different, Faster Clock
If your injury involved a city vehicle, a school district, a county road crew, or another government entity, the two-year rule is not your only deadline — and it isn’t even the first one. Under the Texas Tort Claims Act, Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 101.101, you generally must give the government unit written notice of your claim within six months of the incident. Many Texas cities shorten that window further through their own charters — Houston, for example, requires notice within 90 days, which is the shortest a city charter is allowed to set. Missing this notice deadline can bar your claim even though you’d still technically be within the two-year statute of limitations.
Wrongful Death Claims Follow Their Own Clock
When a family loses a loved one due to someone else’s negligence, the wrongful death claim runs on its own two-year period, measured from the date of death rather than the date of the underlying injury — those two dates aren’t always the same, particularly when someone survives an accident for a period of time before passing. We cover the details of how that deadline is calculated, including cases where the cause of death takes time to become clear, in our guide to wrongful death filing deadlines in Texas.
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
Once the applicable limitations period expires, the at-fault party can ask the court to dismiss the case, and in nearly all situations, the court has to grant that request regardless of the facts. There is no general “good cause” exception for simply not knowing the deadline existed. That’s what makes an early conversation with an attorney valuable even if you’re not sure you want to pursue a claim yet — confirming your actual deadline costs nothing, and it’s the one mistake that can’t be fixed later.
If you’re unsure which deadline applies to your situation, our personal injury attorneys can review the facts of your case and tell you plainly how much time you actually have.
