The statute of limitations is the legal deadline to file your lawsuit. It is unforgiving: if the deadline passes, the court will dismiss your case no matter how obviously you are owed the money. This is the single most common way people lose a winnable claim — not on the merits, but on the calendar.
How long you have depends on the type of claim and your state. Written contracts usually carry the longest window, often four to six years. Oral agreements are shorter. Property damage and personal injury have their own periods. The clock generally starts on the day the problem happened — the date of the breach, the loan that went unpaid, or the damage.
Because the categories differ, the same dispute can have different deadlines in different states, and a handful of claim types have special, shorter deadlines that surprise people. When in doubt, treat the earliest plausible deadline as the real one and act well before it.
The practical rule: don't wait. Gather your evidence, send your demand letter, and if that fails, file with months to spare. Courts do not grant extensions for a missed limitations period except in narrow circumstances.
Enter the date your claim arose in the tool below and we'll show you the exact filing deadline for your state and claim type, with a countdown of the days you have left.
Look up the small-claims rules for your state.
Updated July 2026