The general rule: three years, for injury, property, and death alike
Under Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-101, a civil action at law must be filed within three years from the date it accrues. This serves as Maryland's residual, catch-all civil deadline, covering personal injury and property damage claims alike. A wrongful death claim also carries a three-year deadline under § 3-904, though measured from the date of death rather than the date of the underlying injury.
Medical malpractice: whichever limit comes first
Medical malpractice claims follow a distinctive two-part rule under § 5-109: the lesser of five years from the date the injury was committed, or three years from the date the injury was discovered. In practice, this means the five-year outer limit can cut off a claim even before the three-year discovery-based period would otherwise run out, depending on when the injury was actually discovered.
A deadline is only half the picture in Maryland
Because Maryland is one of a small handful of states that still applies pure contributory negligence, meeting the filing deadline is necessary but far from sufficient — any fault on the claimant's own part, however small, can bar recovery entirely. See our Maryland comparative negligence calculator for how this genuinely strict rule works.
Government claims: two different systems, two different clocks
Suing the State of Maryland follows one notice system; suing a county or municipality follows a different one entirely, with a notably shorter window. See our full guide to Maryland government claim deadlines for exactly how these two systems differ.