Medical malpractice: discovery with a real four-year ceiling
Under Utah Code § 78B-3-404, a medical malpractice claim generally must be filed within two years of discovering, or reasonably should have discovered, the injury caused by a health care provider — but never more than four years from the date of the underlying act, omission, neglect, or occurrence, regardless of when the injury was actually discovered. This second figure functions as a genuine, absolute statute of repose.
Product liability: discovering both harm and cause
Utah's product liability discovery rule, under § 78B-6-706, works a bit differently. The two-year clock begins when the claimant discovered, or with due diligence should have discovered, both the harm itself and its cause — a genuinely more specific, dual-element discovery requirement than simply noticing an injury occurred.
Why these distinct rules genuinely matter
Because ordinary personal injury, medical malpractice, and product liability claims each follow their own separate discovery and accrual framework in Utah, assuming the general four-year rule applies uniformly across every claim type could lead to a real miscalculation — particularly for malpractice claims, where the four-year outer limit can cut off a claim even if the injury wasn't discovered until later.
The ordinary minor tolling rule
For most personal injury claims, Utah's four-year clock generally doesn't start running until an injured minor turns 18. As a practical matter, this means a child hurt at any age generally has until their 22nd birthday — four years after reaching majority — to bring an ordinary personal injury claim.
Negotiations don't pause the clock
Ongoing settlement negotiations with an insurance company generally do not pause or extend Utah's statute of limitations on their own — a deadline can run out even in the middle of active, good-faith discussions.