What a statute of limitations means for your case
Every type of legal claim has a clock. The statute of limitations sets how long after an injury, breach, or other harm you have to start a lawsuit. The deadline depends on your state and the kind of claim — personal injury, a broken contract, fraud, defamation, and others all run on different timelines.
The exact start date can be tricky. Some claims run from the day the harm happened; others from the day you discovered it (the "discovery rule"). Deadlines can pause ("toll") for minors or people who are incapacitated, and claims against a government agency often have a much shorter, separate notice deadline. Because of that, treat the figures here as a starting point — confirm your real deadline with a licensed attorney before you rely on it.