If you were hurt in Arizona by someone else's conduct, you generally have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal-injury lawsuit. The deadline comes from ARS 12-542, and the clock starts on the date the harm occurred. Miss the window and the courthouse door closes, even if the underlying case is strong.
The two-year number is the rule most Arizona injury searches return. The biggest trap is the 180-day Notice of Claim under ARS 12-821.01 that applies to any claim against the State, a city, a county, or any public entity or public employee. Miss the 180 days and the case ends regardless of the two-year SOL. This post walks through what the two-year SOL really means in 2026, where the exceptions are, and the fact patterns we see trip people up most.
The default Arizona PI window: two years under ARS 12-542
ARS 12-542 sets a two-year statute of limitations for actions for personal injury. It is the catch-all for the vast majority of Arizona PI cases: car crashes, slip-and-falls, dog bites, premises liability, and most negligence claims.
The clock starts on the date the injury occurred. Arizona recognizes a discovery rule for injuries that were not reasonably knowable at the time -- the clock then runs from when a reasonably diligent person would have discovered the injury and its cause.
Arizona is a fault-based auto-insurance state. The injured party's recovery generally runs through the at-fault driver's insurer or your own uninsured-motorist coverage.
Exception one: the 180-day Notice of Claim trap
If your injury involves any Arizona government entity (the State, a city, a county, a school district, a hospital district, or any public employee acting in scope), ARS 12-821.01 requires you to file a Notice of Claim within 180 days after the cause of action accrues. The notice must contain the facts sufficient to permit the public entity to understand the basis of the claim, a specific amount for which the claim can be settled, and the facts supporting that amount.
ARS 12-821 then sets a one-year SOL for actions against public entities and employees (not two years). So an Arizona claimant injured by a government actor has:
- 180 days to serve a compliant Notice of Claim under ARS 12-821.01, and
- One year to file suit under ARS 12-821.
A missing or defective Notice of Claim, or one that does not contain a sum certain, is fatal. Arizona courts have repeatedly held that strict compliance is required and that "we will negotiate" or "we will discuss" is not a sum certain.
The single most common Arizona PI trap: a claimant injured on a city street or by a state vehicle assumes the two-year SOL applies, contacts an attorney seven or eight months after the incident, and learns both the 180-day notice and the one-year SOL have already run. The two-year general SOL never matters.
Exception two: medical malpractice and minors
Medical-malpractice cases run under ARS 12-542 with a two-year SOL from the date the negligent act occurred or, under the discovery rule, from when a reasonably diligent patient would have discovered the injury and its cause.
For minors, ARS 12-502 tolls the SOL during minority for general PI claims. A child injured at age 10 has until age 20 to file. The toll does NOT extend the 180-day Notice of Claim or the one-year public-entity SOL -- under ARS 12-821.01(D) and Arizona case law, those public-claim deadlines run from accrual regardless of the claimant's age.
Exception three: dog bites
Arizona has a strict-liability dog-bite statute under ARS 11-1025: the owner is liable for damages caused by the dog biting any person while in a public place or lawfully on private property, regardless of the dog's prior behavior or the owner's knowledge. One-year SOL for the strict-liability claim under ARS 11-1025, not the general two-year. A negligence-based dog-bite claim still runs two years. Verify with your state bar's current statute.
What Arizona's pure comparative-fault rule means
Arizona follows a pure comparative-fault rule under ARS 12-2505. A plaintiff's recovery is reduced by the plaintiff's percentage of fault, but there is no bar at any percentage -- a plaintiff 99% at fault can still recover 1% of damages. This is plaintiff-friendly relative to most modified-comparative states.
ARS 12-2506 also enacts several-only liability (not joint and several): each defendant pays only their share of the fault. This is a significant defense tactic in multi-defendant cases -- empty-chair defendants can be allocated fault.
A common Arizona fact pattern that ends cases early
A driver is rear-ended by a city bus. The driver is treated and released, calls the city for damages, gets a "we'll review it," and assumes the case is being processed. Five months later, no resolution; the driver retains an attorney; the attorney discovers the city was never served a sum-certain Notice of Claim within 180 days. The case is dismissed for failure of a statutory condition precedent.
The takeaway: if any Arizona government entity is potentially involved (state, city, county, school district, transit authority), treat the 180-day Notice of Claim and the one-year SOL as the operative limits and act within them, not the two-year general SOL.
Other Arizona-specific PI rules worth knowing
Wrongful death. Two-year SOL under ARS 12-542. Standing and distribution under ARS 12-612.
Premises liability and slip-and-fall. Two-year SOL. Pure comparative-fault applies; several-only liability applies. Documenting the hazard (photos, incident report, witnesses) within hours can be the difference.
UM/UIM contract claims. Arizona treats uninsured-motorist and underinsured-motorist claims as contract claims with a six-year SOL under ARS 12-548, not the two-year tort SOL. Some policies impose shorter contractual deadlines -- read the policy.
How the LawSensai Personal Injury Recovery Center helps with Arizona matters
We built the Recovery Center to handle the day-one organizational work in an Arizona PI case so that nothing falls through the cracks during the two-year window. We document the incident through a calm, save-and-resume intake, build a medical-and-evidence timeline, and surface every applicable deadline, including the 180-day Notice of Claim, the one-year public-entity SOL, the one-year strict-liability dog-bite SOL, and the underlying ARS 12-542 two-year window. When the matter is well-documented and ready, we route it to a verified personal-injury attorney licensed in Arizona. Start your Arizona intake here.
We are not a law firm and we do not give legal advice. We are the file-organization and deadline-surfacing layer that sits in front of a real attorney.
Personal injury statute of limitations in other states
Each state has its own SOL window, government-notice deadline, comparative-fault regime, and case-type quirks. The full LawSensai PI Recovery Center routes 50-state coverage at /personal-injury.
- California (CCP 335.1, MICRA, pure comparative)
- Texas (CPRC 16.003, TTCA 6-month notice, 51% bar)
- Florida (HB 837 2-year SOL, no-fault PIP)
- Georgia (OCGA 9-3-33, ante-litem)
Informational only
LawSensai is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. The information in this post is general and does not account for your specific facts. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this post or by using the Personal Injury Recovery Center. Deadlines, exceptions, and procedural rules vary by case type and by the parties involved; verify your specific situation with a licensed attorney in Arizona before relying on any window described here.
Last verified: 2026-06-03.