Injured in DC? The 3-Year Clock — and the Exceptions That Shorten It
Every injury claim in the District of Columbia comes with an expiration date. Miss it, and it does not matter how strong your case is, how badly you were hurt, or how clearly the other side was at fault — the courthouse door closes. The general rule is generous enough: three years. The traps are the exceptions that quietly shorten it.
The general rule: three years
Under D.C. Code § 12-301(8), a lawsuit for personal injury based on negligence must generally be filed within three years of the date the claim accrues — usually the date of the injury. Car crashes, slip and falls, and most other negligence claims follow this rule.
DC also recognizes the discovery rule: where the injury or its cause is not immediately knowable — a surgical instrument left behind, a disease with a long latency — the clock does not start until the injured person knows, or with reasonable diligence should know, of the injury, its cause, and some wrongdoing. The D.C. Court of Appeals developed this doctrine in cases such as Bussineau v. President & Directors of Georgetown College, 518 A.2d 423 (D.C. 1986). But the discovery rule is an exception for genuinely hidden injuries, not a cure for delay.
The exceptions that shorten the clock
| Claim type | Deadline / requirement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Most negligence / personal injury | 3 years | D.C. Code § 12-301(8) |
| Claim against the District of Columbia government | Written notice within 6 months of the injury (then the lawsuit deadline still applies) | D.C. Code § 12-309 |
| Medical malpractice | Written notice to each provider at least 90 days before filing suit | D.C. Code § 16-2802 |
| Wrongful death | 2 years from the date of death | D.C. Code § 16-2702 |
| Assault, battery, false imprisonment, defamation and similar intentional torts | 1 year | D.C. Code § 12-301(4) |
Three of these deserve special emphasis:
The § 12-309 notice trap. If your injury involves the District government — a fall on a broken public sidewalk, a collision with a city vehicle, harm at the hands of a DC agency — you must give the Mayor written notice of the approximate time, place, cause, and circumstances of your injury within six months. This is not a lawsuit; it is a prerequisite to one. Miss it, and your otherwise-valid claim against the District is generally gone, more than two years before the "real" deadline arrives. (A police report meeting the statute's requirements can sometimes satisfy it — but no one should count on that.)
The med-mal 90-day notice. DC law requires anyone intending to sue a healthcare provider to serve notice of the claim at least 90 days before filing. A person who first calls a lawyer three years minus a week after a surgical error has a serious problem the statute did not create — the calendar did.
Wrongful death's two-year limit. When an injury proves fatal, the family's wrongful death claim carries its own two-year deadline that runs from the date of death — shorter than the three years most people assume. (Until a recent amendment, this period was even shorter — just one year — so older information floating around online is doubly unreliable.)
Minors and people under legal disability generally benefit from tolling under D.C. Code § 12-302 — a child's own claim typically does not begin to run until age 18 — but a parent's related claims and notice requirements may not wait.
What this means for injured people in DC
Deadlines drive strategy. Evidence must be gathered, providers identified, notices drafted and served, and experts consulted — all before the clock runs. The single most expensive mistake we see is waiting: waiting for treatment to finish, waiting for the adjuster to "do the right thing," waiting to see if the pain resolves. None of those pauses stop the statute.
And be clear about what does not extend a deadline: negotiating with an insurance company doesn't. An adjuster who keeps a claim open, requests records, and talks settlement for two and a half years has done nothing to stop the limitations clock — and some claims are handled exactly that way, whether by neglect or by design. If a deadline is approaching and the claim hasn't resolved, the case must be filed, full stop. A lawsuit can always be settled after filing; an expired claim can never be revived.
We try these cases in the District every year, and calendaring the correct deadline is the first thing we do on every new matter. If you or a loved one has been hurt, call Posey Lebowitz at (202) 524-0123 or send us a message for a free consultation.
Part of our DMV case law archive, compiled in 2026 to reflect the archive of some of the most important decisions in injury law.
Update: One important deadline discussed here changed in May 2019, when D.C. Law 22-311 dramatically extended the statute of limitations for sexual-abuse claims and opened a two-year window to revive older ones — see our coverage of DC’s new law for abuse survivors.