New Jersey personal injury deadlines: the 2-year rule and exceptions

The basic rule: two years

New Jersey's main personal injury deadline is in N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. An action for an injury to the person caused by someone's wrongful act, neglect or default generally has to be filed within two years after the claim accrues. For a car crash, a fall or a dog bite, that usually means two years from the day it happened.

The two-year rule covers most of the cases people think of as personal injury: car and truck crashes, slip and falls, dog bites, defective products and medical malpractice. If someone else's carelessness hurt you, assume two years applies until a lawyer tells you otherwise.

Two years sounds like plenty of time, but it goes quickly when you are treating, missing work and dealing with insurers. Insurance adjusters know the deadline too. A claim that is still being negotiated on the day the two years run out generally cannot be revived just because talks were going well.

Filing a claim with an insurance company is not the same as filing a lawsuit. The statute of limitations is met by filing a complaint in court, not by sending a letter or opening a claim number.

Claims against a town, county or the State: the 90-day notice

If the party responsible for your injury is a public entity or public employee, the New Jersey Tort Claims Act adds a much shorter first step. Under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8, a written notice of claim must be presented no later than the 90th day after the claim accrues. Then you generally have to wait six months after the entity receives the notice before you can sue, and the lawsuit still has to be filed within two years.

This comes up more often than people expect. Potholes and sidewalk defects maintained by a town, crashes involving a municipal truck or NJ Transit bus, falls in a public school or county building, and injuries at a public park can all fall under the Act.

Miss the 90 days and you are not automatically out, but it gets much harder. N.J.S.A. 59:8-9 lets a judge allow a late notice within one year after the claim accrued, only if you show sufficient reasons amounting to extraordinary circumstances and the public entity was not substantially prejudiced. Courts apply that standard strictly.

Children and people who lack capacity

When the injured person is under 18, N.J.S.A. 2A:14-21 generally lets the claim be filed within the normal limitation period after they reach 18. In practice, that means a child injured at age 10 can usually sue until their 20th birthday. The same tolling applies to someone whose mental disability prevents them from understanding their legal rights, until they regain capacity.

There is an important exception for medical malpractice causing injuries at birth. Those claims must be filed before the child's 13th birthday. If a parent has not filed by the child's 12th birthday, the statute lets the minor, or an adult they designate, start the case.

The Tort Claims Act has a similar rule for minors. N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 says nothing in that section stops a minor or a mentally incapacitated person from bringing a claim within its time limits after reaching majority or regaining capacity. Even so, parents should not wait. Evidence about a sidewalk or a school playground disappears quickly.

The discovery rule: when you didn't know

Sometimes an injury or its cause isn't obvious right away. New Jersey courts apply what's called the discovery rule, which grew out of the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in Lopez v. Swyer. As the Court explained in Ben Elazar v. Macrietta Cleaners (2017), the clock can be delayed until the injured person knows, or a reasonable person using ordinary diligence would know, that they were injured and that someone else may be at fault.

The discovery rule is decided by a judge, often at a hearing, and it depends on facts. It shows up most in medical cases, toxic exposure and injuries that develop slowly. It is not a reliable way to rescue a claim when you knew you were hurt and simply waited. The same delayed-accrual idea can apply to the 90-day Tort Claims Act notice.

Medical malpractice has an extra early deadline

Malpractice claims follow the same two-year statute, along with the discovery rule and the special birth-injury rule for children. But they add a step that catches people off guard after the case is filed.

Under N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-27, a plaintiff suing a licensed professional, such as a doctor, nurse or licensed health care facility, generally has to serve an affidavit of merit from a qualified professional within 60 days after the defendant files its answer. A judge can grant one more 60-day extension, but only for good cause. Missing this deadline can sink an otherwise valid claim, so lawyers usually line up the expert review before filing.

Other deadlines worth knowing

Different kinds of claims carry different clocks. A few that come up often:

• Wrongful death: generally 2 years after the date of death (N.J.S.A. 2A:31-3), with no limit where the death resulted from murder or manslaughter for which the defendant was convicted.
• Property damage, such as your car: generally 6 years (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1).
• Sexual abuse of a minor: within 37 years after the survivor turns 18, or 7 years from reasonable discovery, whichever is later (N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2a).
• Work injuries: workers' compensation has its own 2-year rule for filing a claim petition, separate from any lawsuit against a third party.

Why waiting hurts even inside the deadline

Being within the statute of limitations only means the court will hear the case. It doesn't preserve evidence. Store surveillance video is often recorded over in days or weeks. Witnesses move. Skid marks fade and broken steps get fixed.

Lawyers also need time to investigate before filing, identify every responsible party and, in some cases such as malpractice, line up an expert. A case that comes in a few weeks before the deadline has fewer options than one that comes in early.