13-202.Personal injury - Penalty.

This is the section most people mean when they ask about Illinois's personal injury statute of limitations. It covers damages for injury to the person, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, a statutory penalty, abduction, seduction, and a narrow category of criminal conversation claims — all commenced within 2 years after the cause of action accrued.

One carve-out involves crimes tied to a court-ordered escrow account under the Criminal Victims' Escrow Account Act: when the defendant's crime triggered that account, the plaintiff instead gets 2 years from the date the account was established. And the section excludes damages tied to first degree murder or a Class X felony conviction from its own coverage — those claims fall under Section 13-202.1's no-deadline rule instead.

The tolling rule stands out. If a defendant compelled a confession or information through imminent bodily harm or the threat of it, and that confession led in whole or part to a criminal prosecution of the plaintiff, the 2-year period pauses while the plaintiff is incarcerated, or until that prosecution is finally resolved in the plaintiff's favor, whichever comes later. This tolling rule doesn't reach units of local government covered by the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act.