If you were hurt in Illinois 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 735 ILCS 5/13-202, 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 Illinois injury searches return. The single biggest pitfall in Illinois PI practice is hiding in plain sight: claims against local public entities are governed by a one-year SOL under the Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/8-101, which is HALF the general PI window. Miss the one-year deadline and the case ends, even though the general two-year clock has not yet run. This post walks through what the two-year SOL really means in 2026, the one-year tort-immunity trap, and the other exceptions that catch people.
The default Illinois PI window: two years under 735 ILCS 5/13-202
735 ILCS 5/13-202 sets a two-year statute of limitations for actions for damages for injury to the person. It is the catch-all for the vast majority of Illinois PI cases: car crashes, slip-and-falls, dog bites, premises liability, and most negligence claims.
The clock starts on the date the injury occurred. Continuous-treatment doctrines apply in medmal cases but generally not in general PI.
Illinois 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 1-year Tort Immunity Act trap for local public entities
This is the deadline that ends more Illinois PI cases than any other. 745 ILCS 10/8-101 sets a one-year statute of limitations for civil actions against a local public entity or its employees for injury. Local public entities include cities, villages, counties, townships, park districts, school districts, library districts, fire-protection districts, public transit authorities, and most other units of local government.
That is half the general PI SOL. A claimant who waits 14 months to consult a lawyer about a slip-fall on a city sidewalk, an injury on a CTA bus, or a school-property injury has already missed the SOL even though the general two-year clock has not run.
There is no pre-suit notice requirement for local-public-entity claims since the 1986 amendments. The trap is purely the truncated SOL, not a notice procedure.
Claims against the State of Illinois are different: they go through the Illinois Court of Claims under 705 ILCS 505/8 with a two-year SOL. The Court of Claims has exclusive jurisdiction and its own procedural rules. The one-year Tort Immunity Act SOL applies only to LOCAL public entities, not the State.
The practical takeaway: if any local public entity is potentially involved, treat the one-year SOL as the operative deadline. Do not wait.
Exception two: medical malpractice and the healing-arts affidavit
Medical-malpractice cases run under 735 ILCS 5/13-212(a): a two-year SOL from discovery, with a four-year statute of repose. For minors, the repose extends to eight years, capped at age 22.
735 ILCS 5/2-622 requires a healing-arts affidavit with the complaint: an attorney affidavit that a qualified health professional has reviewed the records and concluded there is a reasonable and meritorious cause for filing. Failure to attach the affidavit is grounds for dismissal.
Exception three: minors
735 ILCS 5/13-211 tolls the SOL until age 18. A child injured at age 10 has until age 20 to file a general PI lawsuit. The minor-tolling rule does NOT toll the one-year Tort Immunity Act SOL for local-public-entity claims; minors face the same one-year window as adults for those defendants.
What Illinois's modified 51% comparative-fault rule means
Illinois follows a modified comparative-fault rule with a 51% bar under 735 ILCS 5/2-1116. A plaintiff 50% or less at fault recovers, reduced by the percentage of plaintiff fault. A plaintiff 51% or more at fault recovers nothing.
The 51% threshold is where Illinois defense lawyers focus. Push fault from 49% to 51% and the recovery flips from partial to zero.
A common Illinois fact pattern that ends cases early
The single most common Illinois trap: a claimant is injured on a city sidewalk, a CTA bus, or a park-district property, assumes the two-year SOL applies, contacts an attorney 14 months after the incident, and learns the one-year Tort Immunity Act SOL has already run. The general two-year window never matters; the one-year local-public-entity SOL was the live deadline.
If any local government entity is potentially involved (city, county, park district, school district, transit authority, public-housing authority), treat the one-year SOL as the operative deadline.
Other Illinois-specific PI rules worth knowing
Dog bites. Strict liability under the Illinois Animal Control Act, 510 ILCS 5/16: any person attacked, attempted to be attacked, or injured by a dog or other animal without provocation, while peaceably conducting themselves in any place they may lawfully be, may recover from the owner. Provocation is the principal defense. Two-year SOL.
Wrongful death. 740 ILCS 180/2 (Wrongful Death Act) sets a two-year SOL. For claims against local public entities, the one-year Tort Immunity Act SOL applies even on wrongful-death claims.
Slip-falls and the natural-accumulation rule. Illinois follows the natural-accumulation rule for snow and ice: property owners are generally NOT liable for natural accumulations of snow and ice unless they undertook to remove them and did so negligently, or contractually agreed to remove them. For falls on local-government property, the one-year SOL applies.
How the LawSensai Personal Injury Recovery Center helps with Illinois matters
We built the Recovery Center to handle the day-one organizational work in an Illinois PI case so that nothing falls through the cracks during the two-year window, or the one-year Tort Immunity Act window when a local public entity is involved. We document the incident through a calm, save-and-resume intake, build a medical-and-evidence timeline, and surface every applicable deadline, including the one-year SOL for local-public-entity claims, the Court of Claims two-year SOL for State claims, the medmal four-year repose, and the underlying 735 ILCS 5/13-202 two-year window. When the matter is well-documented and ready, we route it to a verified personal-injury attorney licensed in Illinois. Start your Illinois 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 the ten highest-volume jurisdictions. 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)
- New York (CPLR 214(5), 90-day GML notice, serious-injury threshold)
- Pennsylvania (MVFRL limited tort, MCARE 7-year repose)
- Ohio (1-year medmal SOL, 180-day letter)
- Georgia (Tiered ante-litem notice, 50% comparative-fault bar)
- North Carolina (Pure contributory negligence)
- Michigan (No-fault threshold, 1-year PIP)
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 Illinois before relying on any window described here.
Last verified: 2026-06-03.