How long do you actually have to file an injury claim in New York?

Every week someone calls our office with a strong case and a fatal problem: the deadline has passed. Statutes of limitations are the least forgiving rules in injury law. Miss one by a single day and it almost never matters how badly you were hurt or how clear the fault was. The case is simply over.

So here is the plain-English version of New York's deadlines, what they mean, and the traps built into them.

The basic deadlines

For most personal-injury claims in New York (car accidents, falls, dog bites and most negligence), you generally have three years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit (CPLR 214). Medical malpractice is shorter: two years and six months, with limited extensions such as continuous treatment, objects left in the body, and Lavern's Law for missed cancer diagnoses (CPLR 214-a). Wrongful-death claims generally must be brought within two years of the death. Workers' compensation runs on its own clock: written notice to your employer within 30 days, and a claim filed within two years.

Those look like comfortable windows. They are not, for two reasons.

Trap one: the 90-day notice of claim

If your claim is against New York City, the MTA, NYCHA, a public school, a public hospital or almost any other government body, a lawsuit isn't the first deadline you face. You must generally serve a formal notice of claim within 90 days of the incident (General Municipal Law 50-e). Trip on a broken city sidewalk in January, and by mid-April, while you may still be in physical therapy, your window to protect the claim can already be closing.

Courts can sometimes allow a late notice, but it's up to the judge, costly to ask for, and often denied. The safe assumption in any case that might involve a public body: you have 90 days, not three years.

Trap two: evidence ages faster than deadlines

The legal deadline is when your right to sue expires. Your evidence expires much sooner. Camera systems record over footage in days or weeks. Skid marks fade. Hazards get quietly repaired. Witnesses move, forget and stop answering calls. A truck's electronic logs can be overwritten, and a car's data recorder can be lost the moment the wreck is scrapped.

That is why 'I have three years, I'll deal with it after I heal' is the most expensive sentence in personal injury. Preservation letters, formal demands that footage, logs and physical evidence be kept, only work if they arrive before the evidence is gone. In our office they usually go out within 48 hours of the first call.

What this means for you

None of this is a reason to panic. It's a reason to make one free phone call early, even if you're not sure you have a case and even if you never hire anyone. A case review costs nothing, obligates you to nothing, and starts the evidence clock working for you instead of against you.

If a deadline is about to run, say so when you call. An injury firm can often file a protective notice of claim or lawsuit on short notice, but only while the window is still open.