Kentucky’s statute of limitations for a personal injury claim depends on how the injury occurred and the legal basis of the lawsuit. Most Kentucky personal injury lawsuits must be filed within one year, but claims arising from car, truck, and motorcycle accidents generally have a two-year deadline. Claims involving property damage, medical malpractice, wrongful death, government defendants, and injured minors may follow different rules.
The difference is important. Filing an insurance claim or negotiating with an adjuster generally does not satisfy the statute of limitations. A lawsuit must ordinarily be filed in the appropriate court before the applicable deadline expires. Because seemingly similar claims can fall under different statutes, determining the correct filing period should be one of the first steps after an injury.
Key Takeaways: Kentucky’s Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims
- Most Kentucky personal injury lawsuits must be filed within one year under KRS 413.140.
- Bodily injury claims arising from car, truck, and motorcycle accidents generally have a two-year deadline under Kentucky’s Motor Vehicle Reparations Act.
- Damage to a vehicle or other personal property is generally subject to a separate two-year deadline.
- A qualifying PIP payment can extend the deadline for certain motor vehicle injury lawsuits.
- Medical malpractice and wrongful death claims follow specialized rules.
- Kentucky’s discovery and tolling rules apply only in particular circumstances and should not be assumed.
- Filing an insurance claim does not ordinarily replace filing a lawsuit before the statute of limitations expires.
What Is a Statute of Limitations?
A statute of limitations establishes how long an injured person has to file a lawsuit. If the applicable period expires before the lawsuit is filed, the defendant can ask the court to dismiss the case as untimely.
The deadline concerns filing a case in court. Reporting an accident, opening an insurance claim, sending medical records, or negotiating a possible settlement generally does not constitute filing a lawsuit and may not stop the limitations period from running.
Kentucky does not use one filing deadline for every type of injury. The applicable statute can depend on the cause of the injury, the type of damages requested, the identity of the defendant, and whether a more specific law supersedes the state’s general personal injury deadline.
How Long Do You Have to File Most Kentucky Personal Injury Lawsuits?
Under KRS 413.140(1)(a), an action for injury to a person generally must be filed within one year after the claim accrues.
The one-year deadline can apply to claims involving:
- Slip and fall accidents
- Unsafe property conditions
- Dog bites and other animal-related injuries
- Assault and battery
- Nursing home negligence
- Defective products
- Other negligence claims that are not governed by a more specific statute
For example, someone injured because a store failed to address a dangerous condition may have only one year to file a Kentucky premises liability claim. A person should not assume that every injury claim receives two years simply because insurance is involved.
How Long Do You Have After a Kentucky Car, Truck, or Motorcycle Accident?
Kentucky applies a more specific statute to many bodily injury claims arising from motor vehicle accidents.
Under KRS 304.39-230(6), an action for covered tort liability generally must be filed within two years after:
- The injury;
- The death; or
- The date the last basic or added reparation benefit payment was issued;
whichever occurs later.
Basic reparation benefits are commonly called personal injury protection, or PIP, benefits. They can cover certain medical expenses, lost income, and related losses regardless of who caused the collision.
Kentucky’s two-year motor vehicle rule generally applies to injured drivers and passengers in car and truck accidents. The Kentucky Supreme Court has also held that it applies to motorcyclists. In Troxell v. Trammell, the court concluded that a motorcyclist received the benefit of the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act’s two-year deadline even though the rider had not purchased optional motorcycle PIP coverage.
Accordingly, the absence of motorcycle PIP does not ordinarily reduce a motorcyclist’s bodily injury filing period to Kentucky’s general one-year deadline.
Can a PIP Payment Extend the Motor Vehicle Injury Deadline?
A qualifying basic or added reparation benefit payment can affect when the filing period expires. KRS 304.39-230(6) measures the deadline from the injury, death, or issuance of the last qualifying benefit payment, whichever happens later.
However, several cautions are important:
- The statute refers to basic or added reparation payments, not every payment made by an insurer.
- A liability settlement payment, property damage payment, or payment under another type of coverage may not extend the deadline.
- A replacement check issued for a lost, stolen, or undelivered payment does not create a new deadline based on the replacement date.
- A person who receives no qualifying PIP payments should not expect an extension beyond the period measured from the injury.
- The deadline for seeking PIP benefits themselves is governed by additional provisions of KRS 304.39-230.
Because the payment history can determine the filing date, claimants should obtain written records showing when qualifying benefits were issued. They should not rely on an estimate based on when treatment ended or when a medical provider deposited a check.
Does Every Claim Connected to a Vehicle Accident Receive Two Years?
Not necessarily. Kentucky courts examine the nature of the lawsuit, the parties involved, and whether the claim falls within the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act.
In the 2024 decision T & J Land Co., LLC v. Miller, a vehicle crashed through the wall of a business and injured someone inside. The injured person later sued the property owner for allegedly failing to protect customers from foreseeable vehicle crashes. Although a car accident was part of the factual background, the Kentucky Supreme Court applied the general one-year deadline because the lawsuit was a premises liability claim against the landowner, not a claim based on the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle.
This distinction means different claims arising from the same incident may potentially have different deadlines. A negligent-driving claim against a motorist may receive the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act’s two-year period, while an independent claim against a landowner, medical provider, product manufacturer, or another defendant may require a separate analysis.
How Long Do You Have to File a Kentucky Property Damage Claim?
Under KRS 413.125, an action for taking, detaining, or injuring personal property generally must be filed within two years after the claim accrues.
This statute can apply to damage to:
- A car, truck, or motorcycle
- Personal belongings inside a vehicle
- A bicycle
- Electronics or equipment
- Other personal property
A property damage claim therefore generally has a two-year deadline even when no one was injured. Because this deadline arises under a different statute, a claimant should not assume that bodily injury payments or ongoing negotiations will extend the property damage filing period.
What Is the Kentucky Medical Malpractice Deadline?
Kentucky generally requires a medical malpractice lawsuit to be filed within one year. Under KRS 413.140, the period can begin when the injury is discovered or reasonably should have been discovered.
Kentucky also generally imposes an outside limit of five years from the alleged negligent act or omission. This means that even when an injury is discovered later, the discovery rule ordinarily cannot extend the filing period indefinitely.
Determining when someone knew or reasonably should have known about a possible medical injury can be highly fact-specific. Receiving an unfavorable medical outcome does not automatically establish malpractice, but waiting to investigate a suspected injury can jeopardize the claim.
How Does Kentucky’s Wrongful Death Deadline Work?
A Kentucky wrongful death claim must be prosecuted by the deceased person’s personal representative. The deadline depends partly on what caused the death.
For claims governed by Kentucky’s general one-year personal injury limitation, KRS 413.180 provides additional time for the appointment of a personal representative:
- If a personal representative is appointed within one year after the death, the representative generally has one year from the appointment date to file the lawsuit.
- If the appointment occurs more than one year after the death, Kentucky law treats the representative as having qualified on the first anniversary of the death. This generally creates an effective outside period of two years from the date of death.
The representative’s appointment becomes effective when the judge signs the appointment order.
A wrongful death claim arising from a motor vehicle accident can follow a different rule. When the claim falls within Kentucky’s Motor Vehicle Reparations Act, the lawsuit generally must be filed within two years after the death or the issuance of the last qualifying basic or added reparation benefit payment, whichever occurs later.
Because the applicable deadline depends on the cause of death, the timing of the representative’s appointment, and the law governing the underlying claim, families should obtain advice specific to their circumstances.
Can Kentucky’s Discovery Rule Extend the Deadline?
Kentucky’s discovery rule may delay when a claim accrues if an injury and its connection to another person’s conduct could not reasonably have been discovered earlier. It is most commonly associated with latent injuries and professional or medical negligence.
The rule does not automatically postpone the deadline whenever someone is uncertain who caused an injury. Once a person knows or reasonably should know that an injury occurred and may have resulted from another party’s conduct, that person may be expected to investigate within the applicable limitations period.
Kentucky courts have also held that the discovery rule ordinarily does not give someone unlimited additional time to identify the responsible party. Fraudulent concealment or a misrepresentation that prevents the injured person from discovering the defendant’s role may support a different analysis, but those circumstances require specific evidence.
Anyone who believes an injury was discovered late should obtain legal advice rather than assuming the discovery rule applies.
When Can a Kentucky Filing Deadline Be Paused?
Kentucky recognizes several circumstances that may toll, or pause, certain statutes of limitations. Depending on the claim, these may include:
- Injured minors: Under KRS 413.170, the filing period for certain claims may be tolled while the injured person is a minor.
- A person of unsound mind: The same statute may toll certain deadlines when the injured person was of unsound mind when the claim accrued.
- Concealment or obstruction: KRS 413.190 may apply when a Kentucky resident absconds, conceals themselves, or uses another indirect means to obstruct prosecution of the action.
- Death before a filing period expires: KRS 413.180 may give a personal representative additional time to bring a claim that survived the injured person’s death.
- Other statutory exceptions: Particular claims may have specialized tolling or notice provisions.
These exceptions are narrow and fact-dependent. A person should not delay filing based on a possible exception without confirming that it applies.
Why Should You Act Before the Deadline Approaches?
Waiting until the end of the filing period creates risks even when the statute technically allows more time. Building a personal injury case may require:
- Locating witnesses
- Obtaining photographs or video
- Preserving damaged vehicles or products
- Collecting medical and employment records
- Identifying every potentially responsible party
- Reviewing applicable insurance policies
- Consulting medical or technical experts
- Preparing and filing a legally sufficient complaint
Evidence can disappear, memories can fade, and surveillance recordings may be overwritten. Beginning the investigation early also gives an attorney time to determine whether different claims or defendants are governed by different deadlines.
How Can an Attorney Help Determine the Correct Deadline?
An attorney can examine how the injury occurred, identify the legal theories that may apply, and determine which statute governs each potential claim. This is especially important when a case involves:
- A car, truck, or motorcycle accident
- PIP or other insurance payments
- Multiple potentially responsible parties
- A government agency or employee
- Medical negligence
- Wrongful death
- An injured child
- An injury discovered after the underlying event
- A defendant who concealed relevant conduct
An attorney can also distinguish the deadline for filing a lawsuit from insurance notice requirements, administrative filing periods, and contractual deadlines that may apply under a policy.
Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law Can Help
Kentucky’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims can be difficult to calculate because the state applies different deadlines to different kinds of cases. Most personal injury lawsuits have a one-year deadline, while bodily injury claims arising from car, truck, and motorcycle accidents generally receive two years. Property damage, medical malpractice, and wrongful death claims follow additional rules.
If you were injured and are unsure how much time remains, Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law can review the circumstances, identify the applicable deadlines, and explain your legal options.