Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Cases in Washington, DC

Serious injuries deserve experienced attorneys

A filing deadline is not a target to work toward. It is the point past which a court will dismiss an otherwise valid claim without considering its merits, no matter how serious the injuries or how clear the defendant’s fault. Washington, DC sets different deadlines for different categories of claim, and several are far shorter than the three-year figure most people have heard.

The General Three-Year Deadline

Most injury claims fall under D.C. Code § 12-301, which allows three years for actions where no other limitation is specifically prescribed. That covers the majority of collision cases, premises claims, and product cases. The three years runs from the date the right to bring the action accrues, which in a typical case is the date of the injury.

Deadlines Shorter Than Three Years

Several categories carry a one-year deadline under § 12-301(4). These include assault, battery, libel, slander, malicious prosecution, false arrest, and false imprisonment. The distinction matters more than it appears. A claim arising from a physical attack may be pleaded as an intentional tort subject to the one-year limit, or as negligent security against a property owner subject to the three-year limit, and the choice affects whether the case survives.

Wrongful death carries its own deadline. Under D.C. Code § 16-2702, an action must be brought by the personal representative of the deceased within two years after the death. Note that this figure changed in 2012, when the Council extended the previous one-year period. Older articles and even some law firm websites still list one year, which is no longer correct. Families pursuing a wrongful death claim should also understand that a related survival action seeking the decedent’s own pain and suffering runs three years from the date of injury rather than the date of death, so a single loss can involve two separate clocks.

Claims Against the District Government

This is where valid claims are lost most often. Under D.C. Code § 12-309, an action for unliquidated damages cannot be maintained against the District of Columbia unless written notice was given within six months of the injury, describing the approximate time, place, cause, and circumstances.

Six months is not the filing deadline. It is the deadline for a notice letter that must precede the lawsuit. The Office of the Attorney General confirms that the letter must be received by the Office of Risk Management within that period, and that only that office may accept it on the Mayor’s behalf. The statute does provide that a written Metropolitan Police Department report prepared in the regular course of duty can itself satisfy the notice requirement.

Anyone injured by a District vehicle, on District property, or by a hazardous condition the District was responsible for maintaining should treat this as the operative deadline. Notice is only the threshold step. Claims against the District government then proceed against a defendant with its own investigators and its own reasons to contest liability from the outset.

When the Clock Starts Later

The discovery rule can delay accrual where an injury or its cause was not reasonably knowable at the time. It appears most often in medical negligence, where the harm may surface years after the treatment that caused it. Courts ask when the claimant knew or should have known of both the injury and its cause, not when a diagnosis was finally confirmed, which is how the discovery rule is applied in malpractice matters.

Deadlines are also tolled for claimants who were minors or legally disabled when the claim accrued. A child’s period generally does not begin running until the eighteenth birthday, which is why a birth injury filing deadline can extend well beyond what parents expect. Tolling is narrower than it sounds, and relying on it without confirming that it applies is a serious risk.

Why Waiting Costs More Than Time

Meeting the deadline is the minimum, not the goal. Surveillance video is overwritten in days. Commercial carriers preserve electronic logging data only for limited retention periods, which is why truck accident claims require immediate preservation demands. Witness recollection degrades. Securing that material runs on its own schedule, separate from the statute, which is why preserving evidence cannot wait for a filing decision. Claimants who consult counsel in the final months often find the strongest proof already gone, which is the practical answer to when to hire an attorney.

Deadlines also differ across the region. A crash on the Virginia side of the Potomac falls under a two-year limit, so claims arising in Virginia follow a different schedule than the same crash in the District.

Speak With a Washington, DC Personal Injury Attorney

Wayne R. Cohen began practicing in 1991 and founded Cohen & Cohen two years later. The firm’s attorneys hold bar admissions across the District, Maryland, and Virginia, which matters when a single commute crosses three jurisdictions with three different filing schedules. Determining which deadline governs your claim is a question worth resolving early rather than discovering late. Contact our attorneys to have the timeline reviewed. Fees are contingent, and nothing is owed unless we recover.

Back to Personal Injury Resources →