Tennessee Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims

Tennessee has one of the shortest personal injury deadlines in the country: one year from the date of the injury under T.C.A. § 28-3-104. Miss it and the court will dismiss your case, no matter how strong the evidence.

If your claim involves property damage rather than bodily injury, you get more time — but the rules are different enough to trip people up.

The One-Year Personal Injury Deadline

For any lawsuit seeking damages for physical injuries — car accidents, slip-and-fall incidents, dog bites, assault — the clock starts on the date the injury happened. You have exactly one year to file.

This applies whether you are filing in General Sessions Court (claims up to $25,000) or Circuit Court. The statute does not care which court you choose. It cares when you file.

"Filing" means the Civil Warrant is submitted to the General Sessions Court Clerk and officially issued. Sending a demand letter, calling the other person's insurance company, or visiting the clerk's office to ask questions does not stop or pause the clock.

Property Damage Gets Three Years

If someone damaged your car, your fence, your belongings, or other personal property, T.C.A. § 28-3-105 gives you three years from the date of the damage or the date you discovered it.

This is a separate statute from the personal injury provision. The distinction matters when a single incident causes both bodily injury and property damage — a car accident, for example. Your personal injury claim expires after one year, but you could still file a property damage claim within the three-year window.

You cannot combine them into one lawsuit after the personal injury deadline passes and expect the court to award both. The expired claim is gone.

Other Limitation Periods That Come Up in Small Claims

Tennessee has different deadlines depending on the type of claim:

The most common small claims disputes — unpaid invoices, broken contracts, security deposit fights — fall under the six-year written contract deadline. But if you are filing because someone hurt you or damaged your property, the shorter periods apply.

When the Clock Starts

For personal injury, accrual is straightforward: the date you were injured. Tennessee courts have applied a limited discovery rule in medical malpractice and latent injury cases, but for typical small claims scenarios — a slip on someone's property, a dog bite, a fender-bender — the date of the incident is the date.

For property damage, the discovery rule has slightly more room. If the damage was hidden and you could not reasonably have known about it (a contractor buried a plumbing defect behind drywall, for example), the clock may start when you discovered or should have discovered the problem. But courts interpret this narrowly, so do not assume you have extra time.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

The defendant raises the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense, and the judge dismisses your case. In General Sessions Court, this can happen at the hearing itself — the defendant shows up, points out the dates, and the case is over.

There is no extension for not knowing about the deadline, for ongoing settlement negotiations, or for the defendant promising to pay. If you are close to the line, file the Civil Warrant first and negotiate second.

Filing Before Time Runs Out

If your injury happened less than a year ago and you have been going back and forth with the other party or their insurer without resolution, filing now protects your claim. You can still settle after the warrant is issued — but you cannot file after the deadline passes.

Our Tennessee Small Claims Filing Guide walks through the full filing process: identifying the defendant, choosing the right county, filling out the Civil Warrant, and getting the case served. If your deadline is approaching, start there.

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