The general rule: two years
Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202, actions for damages for an injury to the person must be commenced within two years after the cause of action accrued. This covers most negligence claims, including car accidents, slip and falls, and assault and battery.
Property damage: a genuinely longer window
A single accident can carry very different deadlines. While the personal injury claim runs on the two-year clock, a property damage claim from that same incident gets five years under 735 ILCS 5/13-205 — a full three years longer than the injury claim itself.
Wrongful death and survival actions: two separate clocks
A wrongful death claim generally carries a two-year deadline from the date of death, absent intentional or criminal conduct. A related but distinct survival action — brought on behalf of the deceased's estate for the injury itself — instead runs until the later of the underlying claim's expiration or one year after the date of death. These two claims, arising from the same death, can genuinely have different operative deadlines.
Medical malpractice: discovery-based, with a 4-year outer limit
Medical malpractice claims generally must be filed within two years of discovering, or reasonably having discovered, the injury — or within two years of receiving written notice of an injury or death due to medical negligence. A separate four-year statute of repose sets a hard outer boundary from the date of the act itself. If a doctor or hospital fraudulently conceals the cause of the injury, the deadline can extend to five years from actual discovery.
Government claims: a genuinely shorter clock for local entities
Claims against a city, park district, school district, or other local governmental entity run on a much shorter one-year deadline under the Illinois Tort Immunity Act — not the familiar two years. See our full guide to Illinois government claim deadlines, including the genuinely different rule for claims against the State of Illinois itself.