Missouri · Updated
Injured in Missouri: deadlines, rules and lawyers
Most of what to do after an injury is the same everywhere. The deadline to file, and a few other rules, are set by each state. Here are Missouri’s, each with the law it comes from. This is general information, not advice about your case.
We don’t list firms in Missouri yet. You can still check how to look up a lawyer’s license.
Know this first
Step 1: Five years to file in court
5 years(2 for medical mistakes; 3 for a death)
In Missouri, most injury lawsuits must be filed in court within five years1.
When the clock starts, and whether an exception applies, can depend on the facts. A lawyer can tell you your exact date.
The law, as written
Personal injury5 years
In Missouri, an action for “any other injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract and not herein otherwise enumerated” must be brought within five years1.
More detail
In Missouri, the cause of action accrues not when the wrong is done but “when the damage resulting therefrom is sustained and is capable of ascertainment”2.
If a family member died
Step 2: If someone died
A claim for a death can have its own deadline, and it may start on a different day. Here is the rule as the research found it.
The law, as written
Wrongful death3 years
In Missouri, a wrongful-death action under § 537.080 “shall be commenced within three years after the cause of action shall accrue”3.
If a government body was involved
Step 3: Claims against the state or a local government
If a government vehicle, government property or a public employee was part of what happened, a shorter notice or claim step may come first. Ask a lawyer about it early.
The law, as written
Claims against the state and local government90-day notice (city street defects)
In Missouri, sovereign immunity is waived for compensatory damages for injuries from public employees' negligent operation of motor vehicles in the course of employment and for injuries caused by a dangerous condition of a public entity's property4. Liability on those claims is capped at $2,000,000 for all claims from one occurrence and $300,000 for any one person5, adjusted each January 15, and no award may include punitive damages5.
More detail
In Missouri, no action for injuries from a defect in a bridge, boulevard, street, sidewalk or thoroughfare may be maintained against a city of 100,000 or more inhabitants unless written notice is given to the mayor “within ninety days of the occurrence”6. Third-class cities7 and fourth-class cities8 have the same 90-day written-notice rule for defects or unsafe conditions. Other city classes and charter provisions are outside this summary.
How fault is counted
Step 4: If you were partly at fault
We don’t show Missouri’s rule for shared fault here until we have checked it against the official text. If you may have been partly at fault, ask a lawyer how that affects your claim.
If a doctor, hospital or clinic was involved
Step 5: Medical malpractice has its own limits
Claims against a doctor, hospital or clinic often have their own deadline and extra steps before filing.
The law, as written
Medical negligence2 years
In Missouri, an action against a health care provider for malpractice, negligence, error or mistake related to health care must be brought within two years from the date of the act of neglect9. Separate two-year discovery rules apply to retained foreign objects and to a negligent failure to report test results9.
More detail
In Missouri, no medical-negligence action may be commenced more than ten years after the act of neglect or two years after a minor's eighteenth birthday, whichever is later9. If service is made after limitations has run, it must be made within 180 days of filing the petition or the court must dismiss9.
If they were a minor
Step 6: If the injured person is a child
The clock can run differently for a child’s claim.
The law, as written
Minors and incapacityTolled until 21 (except med-mal)
In Missouri, a person who is under twenty-one or mentally incapacitated when the cause of action accrues may sue within the normal period after the disability is removed, except for actions governed by § 516.10510. For medical negligence, a minor under eighteen has “until his or her twentieth birthday to bring such action”9.
Next
Step 7: What to do with this
- Write down the datesThe day you were hurt, the day treatment ended, and anything a government body or hospital sent you.
- Ask a lawyer about your factsThese rules have exceptions that depend on details. A lawyer licensed in Missouri can tell you which ones apply.
- Ask each firmWhich deadline applies to me, does a notice need to go out, and by when?
How to check a lawyer’s license in Missouri
Each state keeps a public list of lawyers. Before you hire anyone, look the lawyer up by name and read what the listing says about their license. If it isn’t clear, call the office that keeps the list.
Case types
Each case type’s page has Missouri’s deadline and rules for it.
More about deadlines
- What to do after a car accident: learn your deadline
Plain steps after a crash: stay safe, get care, keep a record, talk to insurance companies carefully, and learn your state’s deadline to file.
- After a truck accident: your deadline to file still applies
How a crash with a big commercial truck differs from a car crash: federal safety rules, more than one company involved, larger insurance, and records that are only kept for a while.
- After a motorcycle or bike crash: your deadline to file
What’s different when you were on a motorcycle or a bicycle: keeping your helmet and gear, your rights on the road, helmet rules, fault, road hazards and insurance.
- Hit by a car while walking: your deadline to file
What to do if a car hit you while you were walking: first steps, the evidence that disappears fastest, whose insurance may pay, how fault gets argued, and your deadlines.
- After a slip and fall: your deadline to file
What to do after you fall on someone else’s property: get care, report it, keep a record, and learn the questions that decide a premises case, including falls on public property and at work.
- Wrongful death basics: the deadline often starts at the death
If someone in your family died because of another person’s carelessness: what a wrongful-death claim is, who can bring it, how it differs from a survival claim, getting records, and the deadline.
- Hurt at work: your deadlines
What to do after an injury on the job: get care, tell your employer in writing, and learn how workers’ compensation works and when a separate injury claim against someone else may exist.
- After a dog bite: your deadline to file
What to do after a dog bites you or your child: get care, find out who owns the dog, keep a record, and learn how state rules on dog bites differ.
- After a head or brain injury: deadlines keep running while you recover
What to do after a head injury from a crash, a fall or another accident: get checked, keep a record of how you feel, get help from family, and why legal deadlines keep running while you recover.
- When medical care goes wrong: deadlines are often different, and strict
What to do if you think a doctor, hospital or clinic hurt you: get care, get your records, and learn the extra steps and short deadlines that medical-malpractice claims often have, state by state.
- Deadlines in every state
The usual deadline in all 50 states and DC, side by side. Where we haven’t checked one yet, we say so.
How we list firms
How we list firms
We don’t rank firms. Listing is free and doesn’t depend on buying anything.
Firms are listed for free, in A–Z order. Every fact shows its source and date. We don’t recommend lawyers, and we don’t pass on your details.
Sources
Where the legal facts on this page come from
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.120Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.120
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.100Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.100
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.100Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.100
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.600Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.600
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.610Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537.610
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 82.210Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 82.210
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 77.600Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 77.600
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 79.480Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 79.480
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.105Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.105
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.170Read the source: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516.170
This is general information, not legal advice.