Arizona · Personal injury · Trial-ready representation
A complete reference for the deadlines that govern Arizona injury cases — from the standard two-year personal injury rule to the 180-day Notice of Claim and the special rules for minors, discovery, and out-of-state claims.
The “statute of limitations” is the deadline within which a lawsuit must be filed. Miss it and the case is gone — no matter how strong it would have been on the merits. Arizona has more than one deadline for injury cases, and a few of them are much shorter than the headline two-year rule. This page covers each of them, when they apply, and the exceptions.
The most common deadlines
A.R.S. § 12-542 sets a two-year statute of limitations for “injuries done to the person of another.” That covers virtually all personal injury claims:
Car, truck, motorcycle, and pedestrian crashes
Two years from the date of the crash.
Slip and fall and premises liability
Two years from the date of the fall or injury.
Dog bites and other animal attacks
Two years from the date of the bite (also see the 1-year strict liability deadline below).
Product liability (most cases)
Two years from the date of injury.
Negligent security and assault
Two years from the date of injury.
The clock generally runs from the date the injury occurs. There are narrow exceptions for delayed-discovery cases, where the injury wasn’t known and couldn’t reasonably have been known at the time.
A.R.S. § 12-542 also governs wrongful death claims. The two-year clock runs from the date of death — not the date of the underlying injury. This matters in cases where the decedent survived for some time after the injury before dying from it.
If a city, county, the State of Arizona, a school district, a transit agency, or any of their employees may be at fault, A.R.S. § 12-821.01 requires a written Notice of Claim within 180 days of the cause of action accruing. This is one of the most commonly missed deadlines in Arizona injury law and one of the most fatal. We cover it in detail in the FAQ on the 180-day Notice of Claim rule.
The lawsuit itself must then be filed within one year — half the ordinary deadline.
Medical malpractice claims also fall under the two-year rule of A.R.S. § 12-542, but the discovery rule plays a larger role. The statute generally runs from the earlier of:
When the injury occurred
For injuries that are immediately apparent.
When the patient knew, or reasonably should have known, of the injury and its cause
For injuries that emerged later or were initially attributed to a different cause.
Arizona also has a special expert affidavit requirement for medical malpractice claims, which doesn’t extend the deadline but does add a front-loaded procedural step that takes time to prepare.
Arizona has two separate dog-bite statutes:
A.R.S. § 11-1025 (strict liability)
One year from the bite. Strict liability — no need to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous.
A.R.S. § 11-1020 (general negligence)
Two years from the bite. Requires proof of negligence or the owner's knowledge of the dog's prior aggression.
Most dog-bite cases are filed under both. The shorter deadline matters because the strict-liability path is usually the easier path to win.
A.R.S. § 12-502 tolls the statute of limitations during the period a person is under a legal disability — including being under age 18 or being of unsound mind. For minors, the clock generally starts on the 18th birthday, which means a child injured at age 8 typically has until age 20 to bring a personal injury claim.
The same is not true for the public-entity Notice of Claim. The 180-day deadline runs from the injury regardless of age in many circumstances. Parents of children injured by a public entity should not wait — call a lawyer immediately.
Out-of-state at-fault drivers
The Arizona statute generally applies to crashes that happen in Arizona, regardless of where the at-fault driver lives. Service-of-process and venue rules may vary.
Crashes outside Arizona
If you were injured outside Arizona, the law of that state usually controls, including its statute of limitations — which may be shorter than Arizona's.
UM/UIM claims
Generally have their own contractual deadlines in addition to the underlying tort deadline. Read the policy.
Two years sounds like a long time. It rarely is. By the time the medical picture is clear, witnesses have moved or forgotten, evidence has been overwritten, and the at-fault carrier has had a year to build its defense. Almost every case is in better shape — and recovers more — if the lawyer is brought in early.
A short conversation with an attorney can save weeks of guesswork.
