Arkansas Statute of Limitations: Filing Deadlines by Case Type

Arkansas statutes of limitations give most civil plaintiffs three years to sue under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-105, with written contracts extending to five years and medical malpractice capped at two years. Murder and certain sex offenses against minors carry no deadline, while Class Y and A felonies must be charged within six years.

Hurt in Arkansas? If you are still within the deadline above, you can estimate what your injury claim may be worth with our free Arkansas personal injury settlement calculator. It gives an instant range based on your medical costs and Arkansas's fault rule (general information, not legal advice).

What Is the Arkansas Statute of Limitations?

The Arkansas statute of limitations sets a strict deadline for filing lawsuits and criminal charges. Once the time limit expires, courts will almost certainly dismiss the case. These deadlines exist to promote fairness. They protect defendants from facing stale claims and encourage plaintiffs to act promptly.

Arkansas statutes of limitations vary depending on the type of case. Civil deadlines range from one year to ten years, while criminal time limits depend on the severity of the offense. Some serious crimes, including murder, have no deadline at all.

Understanding these filing windows is important for anyone involved in a legal dispute in Arkansas. Missing a deadline by even one day can permanently eliminate your right to seek justice through the courts.

Arkansas Civil Statute of Limitations

Arkansas civil statutes of limitations establish how long you have to file a lawsuit after the cause of action accrues. In most cases, the clock starts ticking on the date of the incident or injury. However, certain exceptions can extend or pause these deadlines.

If you miss the filing deadline, the defendant can raise the statute of limitations as a defense and ask the court to dismiss your case. Once dismissed on these grounds, your legal claim is gone permanently.

Civil Statute of Limitations Table

Personal Injury (3 Years)

Arkansas gives you three years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. This covers car accidents, slip-and-fall incidents, and other situations where someone else's negligence caused you physical harm. Civil claims for assault and battery are different: Arkansas gives you only one year to sue for those under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-104. The three-year period for negligence-based injury claims is established under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-105.

This same three-year window applies to claims for property damage. If someone damages your vehicle, home, or personal belongings, you have three years from the date of the damage to file suit.

Contracts

Arkansas distinguishes between written and oral contracts when setting filing deadlines. Written contracts, promissory notes, and other instruments in writing carry a five-year statute of limitations under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-111. Partial payment on a written obligation or a written acknowledgment of the debt will reset (toll) this five-year clock.

Oral contracts and contracts not in writing fall under the general three-year deadline in Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-105. This shorter deadline reflects the difficulty of proving the terms of unwritten agreements as more time passes.

Wrongful Death (3 Years from Date of Death)

Arkansas allows three years from the date of death to file a wrongful death action under Ark. Code Ann. 16-62-102. Note that this clock runs from the date of death, not the date of the accident or event that ultimately caused the death.

The three-year rule has a statutory exception for killings. Under Ark. Code Ann. 16-62-102(c)(1), the action may instead be commenced against a person in the time period permitted to bring a murder charge under Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(a) if that person was convicted of capital murder, murder in the first degree, or murder in the second degree. Arkansas sets no limitation period for those murder charges, so the three-year deadline does not cut off a wrongful death claim against a person convicted of one of them.

If a wrongful death claim is voluntarily dismissed (nonsuit), the plaintiff has one year from the date the nonsuit was entered to refile, regardless of how much time has passed since the death.

Defamation: Libel and Slander

Arkansas treats libel (written defamation) and slander (spoken defamation) differently. Libel claims have a three-year deadline under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-105. Slander claims must be filed within just one year under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-104.

The shorter deadline for slander reflects the fact that spoken words are harder to prove and tend to cause less lasting damage than written statements.

Judgments (10 Years)

If you hold a court judgment against someone, you have ten years to enforce it under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-114. This applies to judgments from Arkansas courts as well as judgments from courts of record in other states or federal courts.

Catch-All Provision (5 Years)

For civil actions not specifically covered by another statute, Arkansas applies a five-year catch-all deadline under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-115. If your type of case does not fall neatly into one of the categories listed above, this five-year window likely applies.

Arkansas Criminal Statute of Limitations

Arkansas criminal statutes of limitations set deadlines for prosecutors to file charges. These time limits are governed primarily by Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109. The clock starts the day after the crime occurs and stops when a person is arrested, an arrest warrant is issued, or the prosecutor files charges or an indictment.

If the accused leaves the state, the clock pauses. The limitation period does not run during any time the accused is continuously absent from the state or has no reasonably ascertainable place of abode or work within the state. That pause is capped. Under Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(g)(1)(B), absence cannot extend the otherwise applicable period by more than three years.

Criminal Statute of Limitations Table

Crimes with No Statute of Limitations

Arkansas permanently removes the filing deadline for the most serious offenses. Murder in any degree (capital, first, or second) can be prosecuted at any time, no matter how many years have passed.

Several sex offenses also carry no time limit. These include rape when the victim was a minor, sexual indecency with a child, incest involving a minor victim, engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium, transportation of minors for prohibited sexual conduct, employing or consenting to the use of a child in a sexual performance, producing, directing, or promoting a sexual performance by a child, and first-degree computer exploitation of a child.

The two degrees of sexual assault are treated differently, and the difference matters. Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(a)(1)(F) lists sexual assault in the first degree with no condition attached, so prosecution may be commenced at any time whether the victim was a minor or an adult. Only second-degree sexual assault, in subdivision (a)(1)(G), carries the qualifier "if the victim was a minor at the time of the offense."

DNA Evidence Exception

Arkansas law provides an important exception for cases involving DNA evidence. When DNA testing identifies a suspect through the State DNA Data Base or National DNA Index System, the statute of limitations does not prevent prosecution. This means a case that would otherwise be time-barred can still move forward if DNA evidence links a suspect to the crime.

Similarly, for rape cases, the period of limitation is eliminated entirely when biological evidence exists that is capable of producing a DNA profile of the alleged perpetrator.

Felony Time Limits

Class Y felonies (the most serious non-capital offenses, such as kidnapping) and Class A felonies carry a six-year statute of limitations. Prosecutors must bring charges within six years of the offense.

Class B, C, and D felonies, along with unclassified felonies, have a three-year deadline. Common Class D felonies include theft of property and forgery. Class B felonies include offenses like aggravated robbery.

Special Rules for Crimes Against Minors

Arkansas extends the filing window for certain violent crimes committed against children. For offenses including first- and second-degree battery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, terroristic threatening, false imprisonment, and permanent detention or restraint, the statute of limitations does not begin running until the victim turns 18.

This tolling provision gives young victims the opportunity to seek justice as adults, even if years have passed since the offense.

Insurance Fraud

Insurance fraud under Ark. Code Ann. 23-66-502 generally carries a three-year statute of limitations in Arkansas, running from completion of the last act taken to perpetrate the alleged fraud. That extends to five years when the violation involves a motor vehicle purposely used to cause an accident for the purpose of filing an insurance claim.

If it was not reasonably possible to discover the fraud at the time of the violation, either period is extended by three years under Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(b)(2)(B)(ii). Ten years is a ceiling rather than a further extension: subdivision (b)(2)(B)(iii) provides that the period of limitation may not extend more than ten years after the date of the violation, no matter when the fraud came to light.

Fraud or Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Arkansas does not set a separate base limitations period for fraud or breach of a fiduciary obligation. A charge for one of those offenses is subject to the ordinary period for its classification under Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(b), which is three years for most felonies and six years for a Class Y or Class A felony.

Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(c)(1) then adds a narrow revival on top of that period. If the period prescribed in subsection (b) has already expired, a prosecution for any offense involving fraud or breach of a fiduciary obligation may nevertheless be commenced within one year after the offense is discovered or should reasonably have been discovered by an aggrieved party, or by a person who has a legal duty to represent an aggrieved party and is not a party to the offense. It is a one-year window that opens once the normal clock runs out, not a one-year clock of its own.

Misconduct by a Public Official

Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(c)(2)(A) reaches an offense that is concealed involving felonious conduct in office by a public servant. Concealment is part of what the provision covers, so misconduct that was open at the time does not fall under it.

Like the fraud provision above, this is a revival rather than the governing clock. It applies only once the period prescribed in subsection (b) has expired. When it applies, the prosecution may be commenced within five years after the public servant leaves public office or employment, or within five years after the offense is discovered or should reasonably have been discovered, whichever is sooner. In no event does it extend the period of limitation by more than ten years after the offense was committed.

Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations in Arkansas

Medical malpractice claims in Arkansas are governed by Ark. Code Ann. 16-114-203, which sets a two-year filing deadline. This area of law has several important nuances that patients should understand.

The General Two-Year Deadline

All medical malpractice lawsuits must be filed within two years after the cause of action accrues. The accrual date is the date of the wrongful act itself, not the date you discovered the injury. This is a stricter standard than many other states use.

If you are planning to file a medical malpractice suit, serving a written notice of intention to sue can toll the deadline by exactly 90 days, but only under narrow conditions set by Ark. Code Ann. 16-114-212. The notice must be served by certified mail, return receipt requested, on the medical care provider alleged to have caused the injury, and it must be served within the thirty days immediately before the limitations period expires. It must also contain what the statute specifies, including the patient's identifying details, the dates of treatment and a summary of the alleged wrongful conduct, the known providers involved, and a signed authorization to release medical records.

Failure to meet any of those requirements is treated as material, and the statute of limitations is not tolled at all. Serving notice early, which is the intuitive move, falls outside the thirty-day window and buys no extra time.

The Foreign Object Discovery Rule

Arkansas applies a very limited discovery rule that only covers foreign objects left inside the body. If a surgical instrument, sponge, or other foreign object is left inside a patient and could not reasonably have been discovered within the two-year window, the patient has one year from the date of discovery (or when it should have been discovered) to file suit.

This exception does not extend to other forms of medical negligence. Misdiagnosis, medication errors, and surgical mistakes that do not involve foreign objects must still be filed within the standard two-year period.

Medical Malpractice Involving Minors

Minors receive extended deadlines for medical malpractice claims. If the individual was nine years of age or younger at the time of the act, omission, or failure complained of, Ark. Code Ann. 16-114-203(c)(1) gives the minor until the later of the minor's eleventh birthday or two years from the act, omission, or failure. The "later of" matters: a child injured at age nine and a half has until roughly age eleven and a half, not the eleventh birthday.

If no medical injury is known and could not reasonably have been discovered before the minor's eleventh birthday, subsection (c)(2) gives the minor until two years after the injury is known or reasonably could have been discovered, or until the minor's nineteenth birthday, whichever is earlier.

Medical Records Retention

If you need to gather evidence for a potential claim, knowing Arkansas medical records retention rules is helpful. Medical doctors in Arkansas follow standard HIPAA regulations, retaining sensitive or confidential records for at least six years. Hospitals must keep adult patient records for ten years after the last discharge. Records for minors must be retained for two years after the patient turns 20.

Tolling: When the Clock Pauses

Arkansas recognizes several situations where the statute of limitations clock is paused (tolled). Understanding these exceptions is important because they can extend your filing deadline.

Minors and Persons with Disabilities

Under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-116, a person who is a minor or is insane when the cause of action accrues may bring the action within three years after attaining full age, or within three years after the disability is removed.

The statute's own text still says "under twenty-one (21) years of age," but that figure is vestigial and is not the filing trigger. The deadline runs from attaining full age, and Ark. Code Ann. 9-25-101(a) provides that all persons eighteen years of age have reached the age of majority and are of full age for all purposes, with 9-25-101(b)(1) reading existing twenty-one-year thresholds down to eighteen. Treat the window as three years after the minor turns eighteen. Counting on three years after twenty-one can leave a claim time-barred.

When two or more disabilities exist at the time the cause of action accrues, the limitations period does not start until all disabilities are removed. However, this protection only applies if the disability existed when the right of action first arose.

Absence from the State

In criminal cases, the statute of limitations is tolled while the accused is continuously absent from Arkansas or has no reasonably ascertainable place of abode or work in the state. The clock pauses when the suspect leaves and resumes when they return. The tolling is not open-ended: Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109(g)(1)(B) provides that absence may not extend the otherwise applicable period by more than three years.

For civil cases, if a defendant departs from the state after a cause of action accrues, the time of absence may not count toward the limitations period. This prevents defendants from avoiding lawsuits simply by moving out of state.

The Discovery Rule

Outside of the limited foreign object rule in medical malpractice, Arkansas courts may apply a discovery rule in certain fraud and concealment cases. If a defendant actively conceals the cause of action, the limitations period may not begin until the plaintiff knew or should have known about the claim. A claim against a business over a deceptive sale can also be brought under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which has its own filing period, set out in our guide to Arkansas scam and fraud laws.

Comparison: Arkansas vs. Neighboring States

Filing deadlines vary across state lines. If your case involves events in multiple states, the applicable statute of limitations could differ significantly.

Legal Resources:

• Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-105 - Actions with limitation of three years
• Ark. Code Ann. 5-1-109 - Criminal Statute of limitations
• Ark. Code Ann. 16-114-203 - Medical Malpractice Statute of limitations
• Ark. Code Ann. 16-62-102 - Wrongful Death Actions
• Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-116 - Persons Under Disabilities at Time of Accrual
• Ark. Code Ann. 16-114-212 - Notice of intention to sue; 90-day tolling
• Ark. Code Ann. 9-25-101 - Age of majority (eighteen years, full age for all purposes)
• Medical Record Retention Laws by State

State laws are always subject to change. While our goal is to provide the most current information available, please consider consulting an Arkansas attorney or conducting your own legal research to verify the state law(s) you are researching.

Additional Reading: How long is a life sentence in Arkansas?

More Arkansas Laws

• Arkansas Car Accident Laws
• Arkansas Dog Bite Laws
• Arkansas Expungement Laws
• Arkansas Slip and Fall Laws
• Arkansas Workers Compensation Laws

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the statute of limitations for personal injury in Arkansas?

Arkansas gives you three years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit. This deadline is set by Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-105. It applies to car accidents, slip-and-fall cases, and other injury claims. If you miss this deadline, the court will almost certainly dismiss your case.

Is there a statute of limitations on murder in Arkansas?

No. Arkansas has no statute of limitations for murder. Capital murder, first-degree murder, and second-degree murder can all be prosecuted at any time, regardless of how many years have passed since the offense. Several sex crimes against minors also have no time limit.

How long do I have to file a medical malpractice lawsuit in Arkansas?

You have two years from the date of the medical act to file a medical malpractice lawsuit under Ark. Code Ann. 16-114-203. The only discovery exception applies to foreign objects left inside the body, which allows one year from the date of discovery. Serving a written notice of intention to sue tolls the deadline by 90 days under Ark. Code Ann. 16-114-212, but only if it is served by certified mail, return receipt requested, within the thirty days immediately before the deadline expires and contains everything the statute requires.

Can the statute of limitations be extended in Arkansas?

Yes, in certain circumstances. The clock pauses (tolls) for minors and persons with legal disabilities under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-116. It also pauses in criminal cases when the accused leaves the state. In fraud cases, the deadline may be extended if the wrongdoing was actively concealed. DNA evidence can also eliminate the time limit for certain crimes.

What is the difference between the statute of limitations for written and oral contracts in Arkansas?

Written contracts have a five-year statute of limitations under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-111, while oral contracts have a three-year deadline under Ark. Code Ann. 16-56-105. For written obligations, making a partial payment or providing a written acknowledgment of the debt resets the five-year clock.