You generally have two years to file a personal injury lawsuit in Illinois under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, but the real answer is often shorter. Claims against local government defendants like the CTA, Metra, Pace, or a municipality generally must be filed within one year, injured children follow different rules, and wrongful death claims run from the date of death. Miss the deadline that applies to your case and even a strong claim can be dismissed before a jury hears a word of it.
This article explains the general rule, when the clock starts, the exceptions that can shorten or lengthen your time, and why waiting is risky even when the deadline is far away.
For most injury claims, the answer is two years. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, actions for damages for an injury to the person “shall be commenced within 2 years next after the cause of action accrued.” In plain English, you generally have two years from the date your claim arose to file a lawsuit in court.
That two-year window applies to most of the cases our Naperville personal injury lawyers handle, including car crashes, truck collisions, motorcycle wrecks, falls, and dog bites. It’s a statute, not a suggestion. Courts apply it strictly, and defendants raise it aggressively, because a missed deadline is one of the few defenses that can end a case no matter how badly the defendant behaved.
Keep in mind that the Illinois personal injury statute of limitations governs when you must file a lawsuit. It’s not the same as an insurance company’s internal claim deadlines, and settling talks with an adjuster do not pause it. Negotiation time counts against your two years unless a lawsuit gets filed.
In the typical case, the cause of action “accrues” on the day you’re hurt. If a distracted driver runs a red light and hits you on March 1, the two-year period generally starts that day. For most Illinois car accident claims, the injury and the event that caused it are obvious at the same moment, so the math is simple.
Some injuries aren’t obvious right away. Illinois courts have developed what’s known as the discovery rule, which in certain situations measures the deadline from the time the injured person knew, or reasonably should have known, both that they were injured and that the injury may have been wrongfully caused. Think of a condition that develops slowly, or harm from exposure that no one could have detected at the time.
The discovery rule is applied case by case, and it’s narrower than many people assume. Courts ask what a reasonable person in your position should have noticed and when. You should never plan around the discovery rule on your own, because guessing wrong means losing your claim entirely. If you think your situation involves a delayed discovery of harm, treat that as a reason to call a lawyer sooner, not later.
Several exceptions can move the deadline in either direction. These are the ones that come up most often.
Illinois law protects minors. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-211, if the person entitled to bring the action was under 18 when the cause of action accrued, he or she may bring the action within 2 years after turning 18. A similar tolling rule applies to people under a legal disability at the time the claim arose. Even so, families shouldn’t wait years to investigate a child’s injury, because the evidence needed to win the case won’t wait.
This exception shortens your time dramatically. Under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/8-101, most civil actions against a local public entity or its employees must be commenced within one year from the date the injury was received or the cause of action accrued. The statute contains a separate rule for claims arising out of patient care, but the core point is this: if a city vehicle, a park district property, a school district, or another local government body is involved, your window may be half the usual length.
Many people don’t realize a government entity is involved until a lawyer investigates. A crash with a municipal truck, a fall on public property, or a collision at a poorly maintained intersection can all trigger the shorter period.
When an injury takes a life, the Illinois Wrongful Death Act controls. Under 740 ILCS 180/2, the action is brought by the personal representative of the deceased person for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse and next of kin, and it generally must be commenced within 2 years after the death. The statute extends that period in limited circumstances involving violent intentional conduct. Because the clock runs from the date of death rather than the date of injury, the deadline in a wrongful death case can differ from the deadline that applied to the underlying injury.
Two years sounds like plenty of time. In practice, the case you could have won often disappears months earlier. Skid marks fade and roadways get repaved. Businesses record over surveillance video, sometimes within days. Trucking companies are only required to keep certain records for limited periods. Witnesses move, forget details, or become impossible to find. Vehicles get repaired or scrapped, taking their electronic crash data with them.
The Illinois personal injury statute of limitations is the outer boundary, not a schedule. Lawyers who handle serious injury cases send preservation letters early, photograph scenes, download vehicle data, and lock in witness statements while memories are fresh. Every week of delay makes that work harder and gives the insurance company a head start on building its own version of events.
There’s a practical benefit to acting early, too. When an insurer knows the deadline is years away and no lawyer is involved, it has little reason to offer fair value. A claim that’s investigated, documented, and ready to file carries far more weight in negotiations.
Meeting the deadline means more than making a phone call before the two years run out. A lawsuit has to be prepared and filed in the right court, against the right defendants, with allegations that hold up. That takes investigation. Identifying every responsible party matters, because a defendant you fail to name in time may escape liability entirely. In crash cases, that can include an at-fault driver, an employer, a vehicle owner, and sometimes a company responsible for maintenance or loading.
Certain claims also require expert review before filing, and claims involving government entities demand extra care with the shorter one-year period. None of this happens overnight. If your injury is approaching even the halfway point of the limitations period, the time to get help is now, and if a government defendant might be involved, the time was yesterday.
The safest approach is simple: don’t calculate your own deadline. The Illinois personal injury statute of limitations has enough exceptions, wrinkles, and traps that a short conversation with a lawyer is the only reliable way to know where you stand.
A real example from our firm’s practice: we recovered a $300,000 settlement for a client who suffered a subdural hematoma as a passenger on a CTA train that crashed, a claim governed by the shorter one-year government deadline. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Generally two years from when the cause of action accrued, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. Exceptions can shorten or lengthen that period, so confirm your specific deadline with a lawyer.
The Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (745 ILCS 10/8-101) generally requires those lawsuits to be filed within one year, half the usual time.
Sometimes. Illinois courts apply a discovery rule in certain cases where the injury or its wrongful cause could not reasonably have been known right away, but it is applied narrowly and case by case.
If you or a loved one has been hurt in Illinois, don’t let the calendar make the decision for you. The team at Collins Law Group has the experience to identify your true deadline, preserve the evidence your case needs, and take on the insurance company while you focus on healing. We offer free consultations, we explain your options in plain English, and you owe us nothing unless we recover for you. Contact Collins Law Group today to find out exactly how much time you have and what your claim may be worth.
John D. Risvold is an equity partner at Collins Law Group, P.C. in Naperville, Illinois. He represents individuals and families in catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases, focusing on commercial trucking crashes, rideshare and autonomous vehicle litigation, medical malpractice and birth injury, and product defect claims. He has tried cases to verdict in Illinois courts, recovered more than $50 million for clients over thirteen years of practice, and has been named to Best Lawyers in America for Personal Injury Litigation and Illinois Super Lawyers.
This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different; if you have been injured, speak with a lawyer about your specific situation.
