How Long Do I Have to File a Car Accident Claim in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts gives an injured person three years to bring a tort action, and M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A says it in a single sentence: actions of tort shall be commenced only within three years next after the cause of action accrues. The word “only” is the reason this is the harshest deadline in an injury case. Nothing about the strength of a claim changes it.

Three years from accrual, not from a date the statute picks for you

The section does not say three years from the collision. It says three years next after the cause of action accrues. In an ordinary rear-end crash where the injury is obvious that day, the two dates line up, and treating the crash date as the deadline is the safe way to think about it. The reason the statute uses the other word is that accrual is a legal event, and there are situations where the two are not the same date.

Commenced means the case is filed

Reporting the crash does not commence an action. Opening a claim with an insurer does not commence an action. Negotiating with an adjuster for two and a half years does not commence an action, and an adjuster is under no obligation to remind anyone that the clock is running. The act the statute names is the commencement of the case.

The first four words are a warning label

“Except as otherwise provided.” The Legislature put that at the front because section 2A is the general period, not the universal one. Different claims and different defendants can carry different periods and different steps that have to happen first, and those live in other statutes. The three-year number is the right starting point and the wrong place to stop if a real deadline is at stake.

What this page is not

This page describes what section 2A says. It does not tell you when your particular cause of action accrued, whether another statute governs your claim, or how a court would treat a late filing. Those are questions about a specific situation. Read the section yourself at the link above, and if a deadline may be close, telephone the firm rather than waiting to find out.