Pennsylvania statute of limitations

This table is the fast answer. Each period is followed by the statute it comes from, and every one was verified against the primary Pennsylvania source on July 21, 2026. Where two periods could apply, the shorter usually controls — and if a government agency is involved, the six-month notice deadline (see § 6) is far shorter than any of these.

Pennsylvania gives injury claims two years from the date the cause of action accrues, under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524 — the deadline for most car accidents, slip-and-falls, medical malpractice, and general negligence. Pennsylvania applies the discovery rule: where an injury or its cause could not reasonably have been known at the time, the two years can start when you discover, or should have discovered, the injury. Assault and battery share the same two-year period (§ 5524(1)); defamation is the short outlier at just one year (§ 5523).

Two years from discovery, capped by a seven-year repose. A medical-malpractice claim runs two years under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5524, generally from when you discover, or reasonably should discover, the injury and its cause. Overriding the discovery rule is the MCARE Act's seven-year statute of repose (40 P.S. § 1303.513): with narrow exceptions — such as a foreign object left in the body — no claim survives more than seven years after the act, even if undiscoverable. For a minor, the two-year clock is tolled during childhood (42 Pa.C.S. § 5533(b)).

Four years on a contract — written or oral. Pennsylvania draws no distinction between written and oral contracts: both run four years under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5525(a), measured from the breach or your last payment. Credit-card debt is generally treated as a contract and follows the same four-year period. A partial payment or a written acknowledgment can restart the clock, so check the dates before paying on an old debt. Time-barred debt can still be reported and pursued informally — the statute bars the lawsuit, not the debt.

Six months to give notice — long before the two-year deadline to sue. Before suing a Commonwealth agency or a local agency, you must give written notice of the claim within six months of the date of injury (42 Pa.C.S. § 5522(a)), stating the claimant's name and address, the time and place of the injury, and the treating physicians. The lawsuit itself must still be filed within the ordinary two-year personal-injury period (§ 5524), and sovereign and governmental immunity (42 Pa.C.S. §§ 8521–8542) limits which claims can proceed at all. The six-month notice is the deadline people miss.

A statute of limitations is an affirmative defense. If you file even one day late, the defendant raises the expired deadline and the court must dismiss the case — no matter how clear the liability or how serious the harm. Narrow exceptions can pause the clock — the plaintiff was a minor or incapacitated (42 Pa.C.S. § 5533), the defendant fraudulently concealed the claim, or the discovery rule delayed accrual — but none are safe to rely on without legal advice, and a statute of repose (as in medical malpractice) can bar a claim even where a tolling rule would otherwise help.

Each period above is cited to the controlling statute and was verified against the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes on July 21, 2026. Personal-injury periods are additionally cross-checked and stamped Exact in the calculator.