Maryland Personal Injury Claims: How Long Do You Have to File?
If the other driver ran the red light and your medical records are solid, can you still lose everything because you filed one day late?
Yes.
Courts can dismiss a late-filed case without ever reaching fault or damages, which is why the best Maryland personal injury lawyer starts with the calendar before talking settlement numbers. The problem is that Maryland does not run on one deadline in every situation, and certain claims have earlier notice requirements that can quietly control the case.
Here is how Maryland’s filing time limits work, including the exceptions that shorten the window.
Three Years for Most Injury Lawsuits Under Courts and Judicial Proceedings Section § 5-101
Maryland’s general statute of limitations is simple on paper: a civil action at law must be filed within three years from the date it accrues, unless another statute provides a different period. For most traffic-collision cases, accrual is usually the crash date because you know you were hurt and why. A case can be strong on liability and damages and still get dismissed if it is filed late.
The strategic piece is what many drivers miss. Even when you are well within three years, delay can reduce claim value because proof becomes harder to collect and harder to verify. Video overwrites. Vehicles get repaired or sold. Witnesses forget. Medical notes get less specific over time, which gives insurers room to argue that pain complaints are not tied to the collision.
Three Years Still Applies When the Case Is a Car Crash Motorcycle Crash or Truck Crash
Serious injury does not extend the ordinary limitations period by itself. The same three-year rule often controls a crash involving a passenger car, a delivery van, a rideshare, a commercial truck, or a motorcycle.
Where the difference shows up is in what must be built before filing.
An accident lawyer in Maryland often has to move quickly on scene evidence and visibility issues. Helmets, protective gear, and bike damage patterns can become key proof points. They will also anticipate the usual defense themes, including attempts to shift blame based on lane positioning or speed.
For trucks, the pressure is even higher. An accident attorney in Maryland may need to identify the carrier, the driver’s employment status, and any separate maintenance or loading companies. That is why many people specifically look for the best accident attorneys when the collision involves a commercial vehicle. The legal deadline may be three years, but the practical deadline for preserving records can be much shorter.
One Year for Local Government Claims Under Courts and Judicial Proceedings Section § 5-304
This is the deadline that surprises people most often. If your injury involves a county, a city, or a local government employee, the law can require an early notice step even though the underlying lawsuit might otherwise fall under the three-year rule.
Maryland’s Local Government Tort Claims Act includes a notice requirement that generally calls for notice within one year after the injury, and it specifies what the notice must contain and how it can be delivered.
The statute also includes exceptions and safety valves. Courts may allow late notice for good cause if the local government is not prejudiced, and the statute addresses situations where the government had actual or constructive notice within one year.
Still, you do not want to build your entire case on the hope that an exception will apply. If your crash involves a police vehicle, a county bus, a municipal employee, or a dangerous condition on county or city property, treat the one-year notice issue as urgent. The local-government notice rule is not intuitive, and it is easy to miss while you are focused on medical care.
One Year for Claims Against the State of Maryland Under State Government Section § 12-106
When the responsible party is the State of Maryland or a State employee acting within the scope of duties, the Maryland Tort Claims Act adds timing requirements.
The statute provides that, with limited exceptions, a claimant must submit a written claim to the State Treasurer or a designee within one year after the injury. The statute also ties the process to additional requirements, including denial and filing within three years after the cause of action arises.
The Maryland State Treasurer’s guidance is clear on the key point. If your claim is against the State, it generally must be submitted in writing within one year of the incident and it must follow the requirements in State Government § 12-106.
Five Years or Three Years for Medical Malpractice Claims Under Courts and Judicial Proceedings Section 5 109
Medical malpractice cases run on a different statute and a different clock.
Maryland’s malpractice limitation statute generally requires filing within the earlier of five years from the time the injury was committed or three years from the date the injury was discovered. The statute also includes special rules for very young claimants at the time of the injury.
For a family dealing with a delayed diagnosis, surgical complication, or missed finding, the legal fight is often about the discovery date and what the records show about when the injury should reasonably have been recognized. A Maryland personal injury attorney evaluating a potential malpractice claim will focus on the medical timeline and the documentation trail before anything else, because those facts drive the deadline analysis.
Three Years After Death for Wrongful Death Claims Under Courts and Judicial Proceedings Section 3 904
Wrongful death has its own statutory timeline. Maryland law provides a general rule that a wrongful death action must be filed within three years of the death. The statute also contains specific exceptions, including an occupational disease provision that allows filing within 10 years of death or within 3 years of when the cause of death was discovered, whichever is shorter, and additional provisions for certain claims tied to conduct that would constitute criminal homicide.
Do not assume that insurance negotiations protect the claim. Wrongful death cases often involve estate issues and layered insurance positions, and the deadline remains firm unless a specific statutory exception applies.
When the Clock Starts Under the Accrual and Discovery Rule
The word that quietly controls most deadline questions is “accrues.” Section 5-101 uses that term and then leaves the real work to case law.Maryland’s discovery rule is commonly summarized this way: a claim accrues when the claimant knew or reasonably should have known of the wrong.
For most car crashes, the accrual date is usually straightforward because the injury and the triggering event are immediately known. In other injury cases, accrual can turn on detailed facts, such as symptoms that develop over time, a harmful product defect that is discovered later, or a situation where the responsible party’s role was not reasonably clear at the beginning.
This is where a lawyer’s work makes a measurable difference. Counsel can lock down the correct accrual date, document when key facts were learned, preserve proof that supports a discovery-based timeline when it applies, and build a clean, evidence-backed chronology that blocks a statute-of-limitations attack. A tight timeline protects the filing window and keeps the case focused on liability and damages instead of a deadline dispute.
Three Years After the Disability Ends for Minors and Mental Incompetence
Maryland law includes tolling protections when the claim belongs to a minor or a mental incompetent. In general terms, when a cause of action accrues in favor of someone in one of those categories, the filing deadline is calculated from when the disability is removed, and the person typically must file within the lesser of three years or the applicable limitations period after that point.
This rule often becomes important in cases involving a child passenger, a minor injured on unsafe property, or a catastrophic injury that affects capacity. It does not create unlimited time. It changes how the deadline is computed, and the facts that show when the disability began and when it ended can become central issues.
This is an area where legal work can directly protect the claim. An MD personal injury lawyer can identify whether tolling applies, document the facts needed to support the tolling timeline, calculate the correct filing date under § 5-201, and screen for other statutes that may still impose earlier notice requirements when a government entity is involved.
Fraud Can Shift Accrual Under Courts and Judicial Proceedings Section § 5-203
Maryland also has a statute addressing fraudulent concealment. If knowledge of a cause of action is kept from a party by the fraud of an adverse party, the cause of action is deemed to accrue when the party discovered, or by ordinary diligence should have discovered, the fraud.
This is not a generic “I did not know” argument. It is a doctrine that depends on proof of concealment and proof of diligence. When it applies, it can change the limitations analysis. When it does not, relying on it can be a costly mistake.
Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Can Keep Your Claim Alive
The strongest claim on the facts can still fail if the wrong deadline is applied or a one-year notice requirement is missed, so the smartest move is to confirm the correct timeline early and build the proof while it is still available. For a deadline review tied to your facts and a plan that protects your filing options, The Law Office of Ben Evan is available for a free evaluation, so contact us today.