If you were hurt in Connecticut by someone else's conduct, you generally have two years from the date the injury was first sustained or discovered to file a personal-injury lawsuit. The deadline comes from Conn. Gen. Stat. section 52-584, and the clock starts on the date the injury was sustained or, in narrow cases, the date it was first reasonably discovered. Miss the window and the courthouse door closes, even if the underlying case is strong.
The two-year number is the rule most Connecticut injury searches return. The biggest traps are the three-year statute of repose sitting inside the same statute, and the six-month CGS 13a-149 notice for highway and sidewalk defect claims against a municipality. Substantial compliance with the 13a-149 notice is required, and the statutory content is unforgiving. 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 Connecticut PI window: two years under CGS 52-584
Conn. Gen. Stat. section 52-584 sets a two-year statute of limitations for actions to recover damages for injury to the person caused by negligence or reckless or wanton misconduct. It is the catch-all for the vast majority of Connecticut PI cases: car crashes, slip-and-falls, premises liability, dog bites, and most negligence claims.
The clock starts on the date the injury is first sustained or discovered or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been discovered. Connecticut recognizes a limited discovery rule for latent injuries, but the same statute imposes a hard three-year statute of repose: no action may be brought more than three years from the date of the act or omission complained of, regardless of when the injury was discovered.
Connecticut is a fault-based auto-insurance state. The injured party's recovery generally runs through the at-fault driver's liability insurance or the claimant's own uninsured-motorist coverage.
Exception one: the CGS 13a-149 highway defect 6-month notice
If your injury arose from a defective road, bridge, or sidewalk maintained by a Connecticut municipality, Conn. Gen. Stat. section 13a-149 governs and overrides the two-year general SOL. The statute requires written notice to the municipality within 90 days of the injury (extended to six months in many fact patterns through related provisions and case law in older versions), describing the injury, the cause, the time and place, and the general nature of the defect.
Under current CGS 13a-149, the notice deadline is 90 days from the date of the injury for most municipal highway defect claims. Connecticut courts have repeatedly held that the content requirements are read strictly: a notice that omits the place or the cause is fatal.
The single most common Connecticut PI trap: a claimant trips on a broken city sidewalk, gets treated, and assumes the two-year SOL covers the claim. Three months later the notice window closes. By the time an attorney is retained, the 13a-149 claim is dead even though the general SOL has 21 months left.
State highway defects run under CGS 13a-144 against the Commissioner of Transportation. The notice requirement there is also 90 days. Strict compliance is required.
Exception two: modified 51% comparative-fault bar
Connecticut follows a modified comparative-fault rule with a 51% bar under Conn. Gen. Stat. section 52-572h. A plaintiff whose percentage of negligence is not greater than the combined negligence of all defendants recovers, reduced by the plaintiff's percentage of fault. A plaintiff whose negligence is greater than the combined negligence of the defendants recovers nothing.
The practical line is 50%. At 50% fault the plaintiff still recovers (reduced by half). At 51% the case ends.
Exception three: minors and incapacity
Conn. Gen. Stat. section 52-590 tolls the general SOL during minority and incapacity for most civil actions. A child injured at age 10 gains an extension running from the age of majority. The toll does not apply to the 13a-149 or 13a-144 highway-defect notices, which run from accrual regardless of age.
Exception four: medical malpractice
Connecticut medical malpractice runs under CGS 52-584: two-year SOL from when the injury is sustained or discovered, with the three-year statute of repose from the act or omission. CGS 52-190a requires a good faith certificate with the complaint, supported by a written opinion from a similar health care provider.
A common Connecticut fact pattern that ends cases early
A pedestrian falls on a heaved municipal sidewalk in Hartford, sees a doctor, and waits to see if the leg heals. Five months later, with the leg still painful, she contacts a lawyer. The 90-day CGS 13a-149 notice has already run. The general two-year SOL still has 19 months on it, but the only viable defendant was the city, and the statutory notice was the predicate. Case dismissed.
The takeaway: if a Connecticut municipality or the Connecticut Department of Transportation is potentially involved in a highway, road, or sidewalk injury, treat the 90-day 13a-149 notice as the operative deadline, not the two-year general SOL.
Other Connecticut-specific PI rules worth knowing
Dog bites. Conn. Gen. Stat. section 22-357 imposes strict liability on the owner or keeper of a dog for damages caused by the dog, unless the injured party was trespassing or teasing the animal. Two-year SOL.
Wrongful death. Conn. Gen. Stat. section 52-555 sets a two-year SOL from the date of death, with an outer five-year limit from the act or omission. The action runs through the executor or administrator of the estate.
Premises liability and slip-and-fall. Two-year SOL. Connecticut applies traditional invitee/licensee/trespasser distinctions and requires the plaintiff to show actual or constructive notice of the hazard.
How the LawSensai Personal Injury Recovery Center helps with Connecticut matters
We built the Recovery Center to handle the day-one organizational work in a Connecticut 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 90-day CGS 13a-149 municipal-highway notice, the 90-day CGS 13a-144 state-highway notice, the three-year statute of repose, and the underlying CGS 52-584 two-year window. When the matter is well-documented and ready, we route it to a verified personal-injury attorney licensed in Connecticut. Start your Connecticut 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 deep-dive posts here cover several other jurisdictions. The full LawSensai PI Recovery Center routes 50-state coverage at /personal-injury.
- Massachusetts (M.G.L. c.260 s.4 3-year SOL, MTCA notice, PIP tort threshold)
- New Jersey (NJSA 2A:14-2 2-year SOL, 90-day NJTCA, verbal vs unlimited tort election)
- New York (CPLR 214(5), 90-day GML notice, serious-injury threshold)
- Rhode Island (RIGL 9-1-14 3-year SOL, pure comparative)
- Maine (14 M.R.S. 752 6-year SOL, 180-day MTCA)
- Vermont (12 V.S.A. 512 3-year SOL, 6-month VTCA)
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 Connecticut before relying on any window described here.
Last verified: 2026-06-03.