§ 335.1.Assault, Battery Or Injury Or Death Caused By Wrongful Act Or Negligence

Section 335.1 is the workhorse limitations period for personal injury and wrongful death law in California. It gives a plaintiff two years to sue for assault, battery, or any injury or death caused by someone else’s wrongful act or negligence. That covers the everyday car accident, slip-and-fall, dog bite, or fistfight claim, and it covers wrongful death suits brought by the survivors of someone killed by another’s conduct.

The clock generally starts on the date of the injury or death, though other statutes in this chapter (like the discovery-based rules for medical malpractice in § 340.5 or toxic exposure in § 340.8) can push that starting point later for specific kinds of claims. Two related sections lean on this same two-year period rather than setting their own: § 340.10 applies it to September 11 terrorist-attack victims, and several sections extend the clock for minors (§ 352), people out of state (§ 351), or defendants who conceal themselves.

Before 2003, personal injury claims ran on a one-year clock. The Legislature doubled it to two years effective January 1, 2003, and that two-year period has stood since.