Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims in Washington
Three years. That is the headline answer for most personal injury claims in Washington, counted from the date you were hurt.
Now the part that costs people their case: three years sounds like plenty, so it gets treated as a deadline to think about later. Then a surgery gets scheduled, an insurer keeps a file open for eighteen months of friendly letters, and a clear claim expires without anyone doing anything wrong on purpose.
We have practiced in Kent since 1984, and we have had to tell people their claim was gone. It is the worst conversation in this job, because nothing about it is fixable.
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The basic rule
For most injury claims in Washington the window is three years from the date of the injury. That covers the everyday cases: car accidents, slip and fall injuries, bicycle and pedestrian collisions, dog bites, and most premises liability claims.
The deadline is about filing a lawsuit. Not about settling.
You can negotiate for two years, exchange thirty letters, get an offer you are still thinking about, and lose all of it by missing the filing date, because the moment that date passes the insurer has no reason left on earth to pay you a dollar. That is the whole of your bargaining position, and it disappears in a single day.
The exceptions that actually come up
Claims against a city, county or the state.
These are the ones that catch people, because the ordinary three years is not the operative rule. A claim against a Washington government body requires a formal tort claim notice first, and then a waiting period before a lawsuit can be filed. Miss that step and the three years does not help you. If your injury involved a public road, a public building, a transit vehicle or a municipal employee, treat the timeline as urgent rather than comfortable.Injured children.
The clock generally does not run against a minor while they are still a minor. A child hurt at eight does not lose the claim at eleven. In practice the family should still act early, because evidence does not wait even when the deadline does.Wrongful death.
The three years runs from the date of death rather than the date of the incident that caused it. Those are sometimes the same day and sometimes months apart. Our wrongful death practice handles the difference.Claims against your own insurer.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims are contract claims rather than injury claims, so they can run on a different and often longer clock. This surprises people who assume every deadline is three years. It is worth confirming which one applies to you, and there is more on our uninsured and underinsured motorist page.When does the clock actually start
Usually on the day you were hurt. Not the day you saw a doctor, not the day the pain became serious, and not the day the insurer denied you.
Some injuries do not announce themselves on the day. Where a harm could not reasonably have been discovered at the time, Washington law can start the clock later. That is a narrow door and it is argued case by case. It is not a reason to relax.
Do you know, to the day, when your three years ends?
Most people we ask do not, and roughly a third are wrong about which event starts it. That is a five minute conversation with us and it costs nothing.
Why waiting hurts you long before the deadline
Even a claim filed comfortably inside three years is worth less if it sat.
Witnesses stop remembering, and the ones who move away stop being findable. Security footage is overwritten within days at most businesses. Vehicles get repaired or scrapped, and with them the physical evidence of how hard the impact was. Road layouts change, signage changes, a hazardous step gets fixed.
Then there is the medical record, which is the spine of any injury claim. A gap between the accident and the first treatment is the argument every adjuster reaches for, and a long gap is very hard to explain away later.
The strongest version of your claim exists in the first two weeks. It gets weaker every month after that, deadline or no deadline.
What is the oldest case we have taken and won?
Older than you would guess. But every one of those took more work, cost more to build, and settled for less than the same facts would have brought if we had seen them in week one. Late is not always fatal. It is always expensive.
What we do about it
Our four steps do not change much, because the order is what protects the file.
A free consultation, where we work out which deadline governs your claim and say so plainly.
Investigation, where we send preservation letters for footage and records before they age out, gather the medical documentation, and bring in experts where the injury or the liability picture needs one.
Negotiation with the insurer, and litigation if the offer does not match what the file is worth.
Our fee is contingent on injury claims. No recovery, no legal fee.
A note on the letter that says you have plenty of time
You will not get one. What you will get is an adjuster who is pleasant, responsive, and in no hurry at all.
There is nothing improper about that. It is not their job.
A claim that quietly expires inside an adjuster's file is a claim their employer never has to pay, and nobody in that building is required to send you a warning before it happens. The only person with a reason to watch your calendar is you. Or someone you hired to watch it.
We put the date in writing at the first meeting. Every client, every file, free consultation or not.
Call our Kent office at (206) 575-7562 to confirm your filing deadline
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in Washington?
Three years from the date of injury for most claims. Several situations change that, including claims against a government body, injured children, and claims against your own insurer.
Does the three years apply if I am still treating?
Yes. The deadline runs regardless of whether your treatment is finished, which is why serious injuries need a lawyer involved early rather than at the end.
What if I was hurt on a city street or in a public building?
Treat it as urgent. Claims against public entities require a formal notice step before any lawsuit, and the ordinary three years will not rescue a missed notice.
My child was injured. Have we lost the claim?
Probably not. In most cases the clock does not run against a child while they are still a child, so a claim from an injury at eight is very unlikely to have expired by eleven. Come in anyway. Evidence ages even when a deadline does not, and the witnesses to a playground or crosswalk injury are the hardest of all to find two years later.
Is it too late if the accident was two years ago?
No, and please ask now rather than next month. Two years leaves real room to build a case properly, whereas two years and ten months leaves us filing to protect you and investigating afterwards, which is a worse version of the same claim. Bring whatever you have.
What should I bring to the first meeting?
Anything with a date on it. The police report, the first medical note, the letters from the insurer, a photo with a timestamp. We can work out which clock applies from surprisingly little.
Our office is at 555 W Smith St #104, Kent, WA 98032. Call (206) 575-7562, or contact us and we will find you a slot this week.
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