Statute of Limitations Calculator: California, Texas, Florida and Federal Filing Deadlines

Pick the forum and the claim, enter the date the cause of action accrued, and get the last day to file with the governing statute cited beside it. Every period on this page was read out of the statutory text, not copied from a chart.

Handles the two statutes that run a discovery clock and an outer limit at the same time
Shows the raw anniversary and the rolled date separately, so you never spend the roll
Carries the notice of claim deadlines that kill cases years before the limitations date

Counting a period inside a case rather than the outer deadline to bring one? The court deadline calculator handles calendar day periods generally, the answer deadline calculator gives the date a responsive pleading is due, the discovery deadline calculator covers interrogatory, production and admission responses, and the court days calculator handles anything a rule states in court days.

Last updated August 2026. Statutory text verified against leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the Florida Statutes and the United States Code.

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The accrual date is the one thing this tool cannot work out for you. Fix it from the file.

This computes arithmetic, not a legal opinion. It does not apply tolling, delayed accrual, a statute of repose, a contractual limitations clause or any notice of claim requirement. Confirm every date against the governing statute before you rely on it.

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The short answer

A statute of limitations deadline is the anniversary of the date the cause of action accrued, counted in whole years under the statute that governs that claim in that jurisdiction. A two year claim accruing on March 4, 2026 must be filed by the end of March 4, 2028. If that day is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the last day carries to the next open day, which Texas states expressly for limitations periods in section 16.072 and the other three reach through their general computation rules. Two things break this arithmetic and no calculator can see them: the accrual date may be later than the injury date, and tolling may have stopped the clock.

The four shortest periods here

6 months to present a California public entity claim, Gov. Code 911.2(a)
6 months to sue after an FTCA denial, 28 U.S.C. 2401(b)
90 days after an EEOC right to sue notice, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-5(f)(1)
1 year for libel and slander in California and Texas, CCP 340(c) and CPRC 16.002(a)

Every one of these expires while a two year personal injury clock still looks comfortable.

Exhibit A Start here

California statute of limitations periods, by claim

California puts most of its civil limitations periods in one place, part 2, title 2, chapter 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure, organized by length rather than by subject. Section 335 introduces them, and each following section carries the claims that share a period. The two malpractice sections sit outside that pattern because each runs two clocks at once.

Claim	Period	Statute	Notes
Personal injury, assault, battery, wrongful death	2 years	CCP 335.1	Date of injury or death
Medical malpractice	1 year from discovery or 3 years from injury, whichever first	CCP 340.5	Both clocks run at once
Legal malpractice	1 year from discovery or 4 years from the act, whichever first	CCP 340.6	Both clocks run at once
Written contract	4 years	CCP 337(a)	Date of breach
Oral contract	2 years	CCP 339(1)	Date of breach
Fraud or mistake	3 years	CCP 338(d)	Runs from discovery of the facts
Trespass on or injury to real property	3 years	CCP 338(b)	Date of the trespass
Taking or injuring goods, including conversion	3 years	CCP 338(c)	Date of the taking
Liability created by statute	3 years	CCP 338(a)	Other than a penalty or forfeiture
Libel, slander, false imprisonment	1 year	CCP 340(c)	Date of publication
Anything not otherwise provided for	4 years	CCP 343	The residual period
Claim against a public entity	6 months to present the claim	Gov. Code 911.2(a)	Death, personal injury, personal property

The row that ends the most California cases is the last one. A claim against a city, a county, a school district, a transit authority or the state is barred unless a written claim was presented within six months of accrual, and Government Code 911.2(a) is not a limitations statute at all, it is a condition of suing. A plaintiff with a two year personal injury claim against a public bus operator has six months, and the two year period is irrelevant if that window closes.

The other trap is CCP 340.5. It reads as a three year rule and behaves as a one year rule, because the clock that usually expires first is the one running from the date the plaintiff discovered the injury. A patient injured in March 2026 who learns of it in April 2026 has until April 2027, not March 2029. The calculator above takes both dates and returns whichever comes first, which is what the statute says.

Exhibit B Chapter 16

Texas limitations periods, and the one statute that says the deadline rolls

Texas is the tidiest of the four. Chapter 16 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code sorts civil claims into a one year subchapter, a two year subchapter and a four year subchapter, with a residual four year period at section 16.051 that catches whatever the others miss.

Claim	Period	Statute	Notes
Personal injury, trespass, conversion, forcible detainer	2 years	CPRC 16.003(a)	Date the claim accrued
Wrongful death	2 years	CPRC 16.003(b)	Runs from the death, not the injury
Health care liability claim	2 years	CPRC 74.251(a)	10 year statute of repose in 74.251(b)
Debt or breach of contract	4 years	CPRC 16.004(a)(3)	Date of breach
Fraud	4 years	CPRC 16.004(a)(4)	Date the claim accrued
Breach of fiduciary duty	4 years	CPRC 16.004(a)(5)	Date the claim accrued
Libel, slander, malicious prosecution	1 year	CPRC 16.002(a)	Date of publication or the act
Anything with no express period	4 years	CPRC 16.051	The residual period

Texas is also the only one of the four jurisdictions on this page that writes the weekend and holiday rule directly into its limitations chapter. Section 16.072 says that if the last day of a limitations period falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, the period is extended to include the next day the county offices are open for business. Note what it keys to: county offices, not the courthouse and not a statewide holiday list. The Texas holiday set in Government Code 662.021 has fifteen days and no observed day shift at all, so a holiday that falls on a Saturday simply disappears into the weekend rather than moving to the Friday before.

The wrongful death row deserves a second look. Section 16.003(b) runs the two years from the death, not from the injury that caused it. Where a decedent lived for months after an accident, the survival claim and the wrongful death claim expire on different dates from the same collision.

Exhibit C Rewritten in 2023

Florida limitations periods after HB 837

Florida renumbered and rewrote section 95.11 in 2023, and a great deal of published material still quotes the old text. The change that matters most: general negligence went from four years to two. House Bill 837 was signed on March 24, 2023 and applies to causes of action accruing after that date, so a negligence claim that accrued in 2022 still carries four years while one that accrued in 2024 carries two.

Claim	Period	Statute	Notes
Negligence	2 years, or 4 if it accrued on or before March 24, 2023	Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a)	Cut from 4 to 2 by HB 837
Wrongful death	2 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(e)	Runs from the death
Medical malpractice	2 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(c)	From the incident or its discovery
Professional malpractice other than medical	2 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(b)	Includes legal malpractice
Libel or slander	2 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(h)	Date of publication
Written contract	5 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(2)(b)	The longest ordinary period of the four states here
Oral contract	4 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(3)(j)	Date of breach
Fraud	4 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(3)(i)	From discovery, 12 year outer limit in 95.031(2)(a)
Trespass on real property	4 years	Fla. Stat. 95.11(3)(f)	Date of the trespass

Florida is worth handling carefully for a second reason. Rule 2.514 of the Rules of General Practice and Judicial Administration governs the computation of time in "any statute that does not specify a method of computing time," and chapter 95 does not specify one. Subdivision (a)(1)(A) of that rule does not begin counting until the first day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, which is unlike every other jurisdiction on this page. Whether that delayed start applies to a multi year limitations period rather than to a period stated in days is not something to bet a case on. This calculator does not apply it, because applying it would move the deadline later, and a limitations tool should never hand you time you may not have.

The fraud row carries the same double structure as the California malpractice sections. Section 95.031(2)(a) runs the four years from the time the facts were discovered or should have been discovered with due diligence, and then cuts everything off twelve years after the fraud was committed regardless of discovery. That twelve year figure is a statute of repose, and it cannot be tolled.

Exhibit D No general period

Federal claims, where the period often is not in the statute you are suing under

Federal practice has no general civil statute of limitations. Congress writes a period into some statutes, leaves it out of others, and since 1990 has had a catch all at 28 U.S.C. 1658(a) that supplies four years for claims arising under federal statutes enacted after December 1, 1990. Older statutes with no period of their own borrow from state law, which is why a section 1983 claim in Texas expires in two years and the same claim in a four year state does not.

Claim	Period	Authority	Notes
Federal statute enacted after Dec 1, 1990 with no period of its own	4 years	28 U.S.C. 1658(a)	The federal catch all
Civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. 1983	The forum state personal injury period	Wilson v. Garcia line of cases	2 years in California, Texas and Florida
Federal Tort Claims Act, administrative claim	2 years	28 U.S.C. 2401(b)	Present it to the agency, do not file suit
Federal Tort Claims Act, suit after denial	6 months from the mailing of the denial	28 U.S.C. 2401(b)	A second, shorter clock
Securities fraud under Rule 10b-5	2 years from discovery or 5 years from the violation	28 U.S.C. 1658(b)	Whichever is earlier
Title VII or ADA charge, deferral state	300 days	42 U.S.C. 2000e-5(e)(1)	180 days where there is no state agency
Suit after an EEOC right to sue notice	90 days	42 U.S.C. 2000e-5(f)(1)	From receipt of the notice

The Federal Tort Claims Act rows are two separate deadlines and both are jurisdictional. Section 2401(b) requires the administrative claim to be presented to the agency within two years of accrual, and then requires suit within six months after the agency mails its notice of final denial. A plaintiff who presents the claim on time and then waits nine months after the denial has no case, no matter how far the two years still had to run.

Employment claims run on a similar two stage structure with much shorter numbers. The charge goes to the EEOC within 300 days in a state that has its own fair employment agency, 180 where it does not, and the suit follows within 90 days of receiving the right to sue notice. Ninety days is short enough that the mail date and the receipt date routinely become the whole dispute.

Exhibit E The hard part

Four things that move the date, and none of them are arithmetic

A limitations calculator is a counting tool. The hard part of a limitations question is almost never the count. It is deciding what date to count from and whether anything stopped the clock after that.

01

Accrual is not always the injury date

A cause of action accrues when its last element occurs, which Florida puts in section 95.031(1). In a latent injury, a professional negligence case or a continuing course of conduct, that can be much later than the event a client describes as the beginning. Pin it from documents, not from the intake call.

02

The discovery rule moves the start

Fraud runs from discovery in all four jurisdictions here: CCP 338(d), CPRC 16.004(a)(4) and Fla. Stat. 95.031(2)(a). California medical and legal malpractice run a discovery clock and an outer clock at once under CCP 340.5 and 340.6, and the earlier one wins.

03

Tolling stops the clock

Minority, mental incapacity, the defendant's absence from the state, fraudulent concealment, equitable estoppel, a bankruptcy stay, military service under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and any written tolling agreement. Florida lists its grounds at section 95.051. None of them are visible to a date calculator.

04

A statute of repose ignores all of it

Repose runs from a fixed event and cuts the claim off whether or not it accrued or was discovered. Ten years on Texas health care claims under CPRC 74.251(b), twelve years on Florida fraud and products claims under 95.031(2), five years on federal securities fraud under 1658(b). Repose is not tolled.

There is a fifth item worth naming because it is contractual rather than statutory. Insurance policies, construction contracts and commercial agreements frequently shorten the limitations period by agreement, and courts enforce reasonable shortening clauses. A four year written contract claim can be a one year claim because of a sentence in the contract that no statute would ever tell you about.

Exhibit F By hand

How to calculate a statute of limitations deadline in four steps

01

Fix the accrual date

From the police report, the medical record, the contract, the invoice or the publication. Write down which document it came from, because that note is what you will want if the date is ever contested.

02

Name the claim precisely

Not "the injury case" but negligence, or professional malpractice, or breach of a written contract. In Florida those three are two years, two years and five years. The label chooses the statute, and the statute chooses the number.

03

Count to the anniversary

Exclude the accrual day and count whole years to the same calendar date. Where the target month is short the anniversary lands on its last day, so two years from February 29 is February 28.

04

Calendar it early, not on the day

Set the working deadline weeks before the statutory one, and set a second reminder for any notice of claim window. If the last day is closed and the period rolls, treat the roll as margin rather than as time you have.

The one place this arithmetic surprises people is the month end anniversary. A six month California claim window opening on August 31 closes on February 28 or 29, because there is no February 31, and the same clamp applies to a two year period running from February 29 in a leap year. The calculator applies it, and shows you the date it produced so you can check it against the file.

Exhibit G In practice

Where a limitations date gets computed in a real practice

Intake screening

The first question on any new personal injury or malpractice matter is how much time is left. A firm taking twenty calls a week needs that answer in seconds, before anyone opens a file.

Case transfers and referrals

A file arriving from another firm carries whatever limitations date that firm computed. Recomputing it from the accrual date is the cheapest diligence step in the transfer, and it catches the referral that is already stale.

Government defendants

The moment a defendant turns out to be a city, a transit authority or a federal agency, the real deadline is months rather than years. This is the check that has to happen before the ordinary period is even relevant.

Multi state matters

The same collision produces a two year claim in one state and a longer one in another, and a section 1983 claim borrows whichever the forum state uses. Comparing the periods side by side is how the forum decision gets made.

Docket audits

Firms that run a quarterly sweep of open matters against their limitations dates find the stale ones while there is still time. Malpractice carriers ask whether that sweep exists.

Demand and settlement timing

Negotiating leverage changes as the period closes, and an adjuster who knows the date is running is negotiating with a different set of facts than you are. Knowing the exact day matters on both sides of that call.

Every one of these is a place where the answer has to be right the first time and there is no second chance to get it. Choosing a system to hold those dates once they are computed is a separate question, covered in our guide to deadline management software for litigation teams, and in the overview of legal calendaring and docketing software.

Exhibit H Asked and answered

Statute of limitations questions, answered

How do you calculate the statute of limitations?

Fix the date the claim accrued, look up the limitations period for that claim in that jurisdiction, and count forward to the anniversary of the accrual date. A two year period that starts on March 4, 2026 runs out at the end of March 4, 2028. If that anniversary falls on a weekend or a legal holiday the last day carries to the next day the court is open, under FRCP 6(a)(1)(C) federally, CCP 12a(a) in California, section 16.072 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code in Texas, and Rule 2.514(a)(1)(C) in Florida.

When does the statute of limitations start?

It starts when the cause of action accrues, which is when the last element of the claim occurs, not when the plaintiff decides to sue and not when a lawyer is retained. Florida says so directly in section 95.031(1). For some claims the accrual date moves: fraud runs from discovery in all four jurisdictions here, and medical malpractice runs from discovery subject to an outer limit. Getting the accrual date wrong is the single most common way a limitations calculation fails.

What happens if the statute of limitations falls on a weekend?

The last day carries forward to the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. Texas states this expressly for limitations periods in section 16.072: the period is extended to include the next day the county offices are open. Federal, California and Florida reach the same result through their general computation rules. Treat that extra day as a safety margin you never spend, because whether the roll applies can turn on which office is closed.

Does the statute of limitations run from the injury or from discovery?

It depends on the claim. Ordinary negligence runs from the injury. Fraud runs from discovery: CCP 338(d), CPRC 16.004(a)(4) and Fla. Stat. 95.031(2)(a) all key it to when the facts were or should have been discovered. California medical malpractice runs on both at once under CCP 340.5, one year after discovery or three years after the injury, whichever comes first, and the same double structure governs legal malpractice under CCP 340.6.

Can the statute of limitations be paused or extended?

Yes, and no calculator can tell you whether it happened. Tolling doctrines include minority, mental incapacity, the defendant's absence from the state, fraudulent concealment, equitable estoppel, a bankruptcy stay, military service under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and in Florida the specific list in section 95.051. Written tolling agreements are also common in commercial cases. Every one of them moves the date this tool computes.

How long is the statute of limitations in California?

Two years for personal injury and wrongful death under CCP 335.1, four years on a written contract under CCP 337(a), two years on an oral contract under CCP 339(1), three years for fraud or for injury to property under CCP 338, one year for libel and slander under CCP 340(c), and four years for anything with no other period under CCP 343. If the defendant is a public entity, a claim must be presented within six months under Government Code 911.2(a), long before any of those run.

How long is the statute of limitations in Texas?

Two years for personal injury, trespass, conversion and wrongful death under sections 16.003(a) and (b) of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Four years for debt, breach of contract, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty under section 16.004(a). One year for libel, slander and malicious prosecution under section 16.002(a). Health care liability claims are two years under section 74.251(a), with a ten year statute of repose in subsection (b). Anything with no express period is four years under section 16.051.

How long is the statute of limitations in Florida?

Negligence is two years under section 95.11(5)(a) for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023, and four years for those accruing before. Wrongful death, medical malpractice, other professional malpractice, libel and slander are two years under section 95.11(5). A written contract is five years under 95.11(2)(b), an oral contract four under 95.11(3)(j), and fraud four under 95.11(3)(i), running from discovery with a twelve year outer limit in 95.031(2)(a).

Is a statute of limitations the same as a statute of repose?

No, and the difference matters. A statute of limitations runs from accrual and can be tolled. A statute of repose runs from a fixed event, usually the defendant's last act, and cuts off the claim whether or not it has accrued or been discovered. Texas puts a ten year repose on health care liability claims in section 74.251(b), Florida puts twelve years on fraud and on products liability in section 95.031(2), and section 1658(b) puts five years on securities fraud.

How long do you have to sue a city, a county or a state agency?

Far less time than you have to sue a private defendant, and the deadline is usually to present a claim rather than to file suit. California requires a claim for death, personal injury or personal property damage within six months of accrual under Government Code 911.2(a). Texas requires notice within six months under section 101.101, and a city charter can shorten that further. Florida requires a written claim to the agency and to the Department of Financial Services under section 768.28(6)(a). Missing the notice deadline ends the case before the limitations period is anywhere near running.

A limitations date belongs in the file, not in a spreadsheet

Computing the date once is easy. Keeping it correct across two hundred open matters, through a referral, a substitution and a tolling agreement, is the part that fails. Caseagent holds the accrual date, the computed deadline and the document it came from inside the matter, and raises it as the date approaches.

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