Filing deadlines after a North Carolina crash

An ordinary personal-injury lawsuit, or a claim for physical damage to the claimant’s own property, usually has to be commenced within three years, as G.S. 1-52(16) provides. The claim accrues when the bodily harm, or the physical damage, becomes apparent, or when it ought reasonably to have become apparent, whichever happens first. Except as provided in G.S. 130A-26.3 or G.S. 1-17(d) and (e), no cause of action accrues more than ten years after the defendant’s last act or omission that gave rise to it. Handing a claim to an insurer is not how a lawsuit is commenced.

A death claim under G.S. 28A-18-2 has a two-year window counted from death. G.S. 1-53(4) also says that if the decedent would already have been unable to bring a bodily-harm action under G.S. 1-15(c) or 1-52(16), no death action may be brought. G.S. 1-17 pauses the ordinary clock for a person who is under 18, insane, or incompetent as that section defines those conditions, until the disability is removed.

A tort claim against a state department or agency must be filed with the Industrial Commission within three years after it accrues, or within two years after death, under G.S. 143-299. A claim against a city is subject to G.S. 160A-485, which refers to a duty to give notice if one exists but does not itself name a number of days. Ask the city early, and still commence any lawsuit inside the ordinary window. Uninsured-motorist claims have their own 60-day notice practice under G.S. 20-279.21, which is not a substitute for filing the lawsuit on time. Read more in the deadline guide, and in the city-and-state guide.