Missouri car accident statute of limitations

A car wreck in O’Fallon, Missouri, starts a five-year clock. Missouri’s number for it is RSMo 516.120: five years for injury suits. That’s the short answer. Five questions cover the rest, and they matter more than the number by itself.

How long do you actually get?

Five years, start to finish, for most injury claims. An injury claim in Missouri outlasts a presidential term: five full years, with the wreck itself as day zero. Few states hand out that much room. A rear-end fender bender and a crash that puts you in surgery both get the same five years. The type of injury doesn’t change the number, only what fills the years while the clock runs.

From when does the clock start?

The wreck’s own date starts the countdown, and nothing else moves it. A late diagnosis doesn’t push it forward. Getting around to calling an attorney doesn’t push it back either. Missouri counts from the collision, plain and simple. That’s true even for an injury that shows up weeks after the crash, sore muscles that turn out to be something more. The date on the crash report is the date that matters here.

What can pause the count?

Missouri law allows a pause in narrow situations. Age is one factor courts look at. So is a defendant who slips out of Missouri and stays unreachable. Pauses are the exception here, not something to plan around without a real review of the facts. Most crash victims never hit one of these situations at all. The five years simply runs, start to finish, the way it’s supposed to.

Who gets a different clock?

A death from the crash runs on its own timeline. A death case runs shorter, under RSMo 537.100, giving a family three years instead of five. That shorter window catches families off guard, since the injury deadline they may have heard about doesn’t apply here at all. A claim against a government driver can carry its own notice rules too, shorter than the standard window. Government claims often ask for early written notice, sometimes within months, well before the general deadline would ever come into play.

What happens if the five years pass?

The courthouse door closes on the claim. Full stop. It doesn’t matter how clear the fault is or how large the bills run. That’s the plain cost of waiting. No exception opens back up once the date has passed, and no amount of new evidence changes that outcome.

Five years feels like a lot of room. Evidence doesn’t wait that long. Memories fade, cars get repaired or scrapped, and witnesses move on. Our guide to the first steps discusses the early moves that still hold up years later. The case-value guide debunks the idea that waiting costs you nothing but time.