Most people asking this question have already been given a number by somebody, usually two years, and are calling to find out whether it is true. Often it is not the right number, and almost nobody has been told about the provisions that suspend the running of a period once it has started.
This article covers both. What the base periods are, and what Texas statutes say stops the clock.
The base periods
Two years for ordinary personal injury. Section 16.003 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. For an injury resulting in death, two years running from the date of death.
Thirty years or five years for claims arising from sexual abuse. Section 16.0045 has two lists, keyed to the specific Penal Code conduct involved. The thirty year list covers sexual assault of a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child, continuous sexual abuse of a young child or disabled individual, indecency with a child, and the trafficking and compelling prostitution provisions involving a child or a disabled individual. The five year list covers sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, trafficking of persons other than the conduct in the first list, and compelling prostitution. The two lists are reproduced in full on the statute of limitations page.
Ten years for a claim brought under Chapter 98B, which covers intimate visual material and artificial intimate visual material. Section 98B.009 requires suit not later than ten years after the later of the date the depicted person reasonably discovers the material or the date that person turns eighteen.
That section was added effective 1 September 2025. Before it existed, the residual two year period applied to these claims. Whether the ten year period governs a disclosure that happened before that date is a question to ask rather than to assume, because conduct predating the change may still be measured under the period that applied then.
Six months, and sometimes far less, for a claim against a governmental unit. Section 101.101(a) entitles a governmental unit to notice within six months of the incident. Subsection (b) provides that a city's charter and ordinance provisions requiring notice within a charter period permitted by law are ratified and approved, so the practical deadline against a Texas city can be shorter than six months and has to be checked against that city's charter. Subsection (c) provides that the notice requirement does not apply where the governmental unit already has actual notice that death occurred, that the claimant was injured, or that property was damaged. If a public entity is involved, this is the first thing to look at, not the last.
What changes when a period starts, stops, or is preserved
Being a minor, or of unsound mind
This is the largest one and the one most often missed.
Section 16.001(a) provides that a person is under a legal disability if the person is younger than eighteen years of age, regardless of whether the person is married, or is of unsound mind. Subsection (b) then provides that if a person entitled to bring a personal action is under a legal disability when the cause of action accrues, the time of the disability is not included in a limitations period.
In plain terms: where the claim accrued while the person was a child, the time of that disability is not counted. A survivor abused at fourteen is not simply measured from fourteen. Which period the clock then runs for is a separate question, because Section 16.0045 supplies the period for abuse claims and Section 16.001 governs only whether the disability time counts. Both have to be applied to the same set of dates, which is why this is a calculation rather than a rule of thumb.
The statute sets two boundaries. Subsection (c) provides that a person may not tack one legal disability to another to extend a limitations period. Subsection (d) provides that a disability arising after a limitations period starts does not suspend the running of the period. Both matter, and both are reasons to have the dates looked at rather than assumed in either direction.
An unknown perpetrator
Section 16.0045(d) addresses the case where the survivor does not know who did it. Filing a petition against an unknown defendant tolls the limitations period, provided the plaintiff proceeds with due diligence to discover the defendant's identity and amends the petition not later than the thirtieth day after the defendant is identified. The period begins running again on the date the petition is amended.
Read the scope carefully. By its own words the subsection tolls "a limitations period under this section," meaning a period running under Section 16.0045, which is keyed to the specific Penal Code offenses in that section's two lists. It does not by its terms extend a two year period running under Section 16.003 against a property owner, a management company or another business. Which of your potential claims it reaches is a question for a lawyer with your dates.
This is a real mechanism, not a theoretical one. It depends on a petition actually being filed, and it is one of the reasons a survivor who cannot name the person should still make the call.
The defendant leaving Texas
Section 16.063 provides that the absence from this state of a person against whom a cause of action may be maintained suspends the running of the applicable statute of limitations for the period of the person's absence.
That is the statute's text. How it applies to a particular defendant who moved away, and for what stretch of time, is a question to put to a lawyer with the dates in front of them rather than one to settle from a web page.
Death of the injured person
Section 16.0045(c) provides that in an action for injury resulting in death arising from the conduct in either of that section's lists, the cause of action accrues on the death of the injured person.
For ordinary injury claims, Section 16.003(b) likewise runs the two year period from the date of death.
A case filed in the wrong court
Section 16.064 suspends the period between the date an action is filed in a trial court and the date the same action is filed again in a different court, where the first court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and the refiling happens within sixty days after that dismissal becomes final. It does not apply where the adverse party shows the first filing was made with intentional disregard of proper jurisdiction.
Adding claims to a case already on file
Section 16.068 provides that where a filed pleading relates to a cause of action that was not subject to a plea of limitation when the pleading was filed, a later amendment or supplement changing the facts or grounds of liability is not subject to a plea of limitation, unless the amendment is wholly based on a new, distinct, or different transaction or occurrence.
The practical consequence is that filing on time protects more than the exact theory pleaded on day one, which is another reason not to wait for a case to be fully understood before it is filed.
Delayed discovery is a separate question
None of the provisions above is triggered by a survivor only recently understanding what happened, or only recently feeling able to talk about it. There is a separate body of Texas law on when a cause of action accrues and on when a limitations period may be deferred. It is a question to ask, not a question to assume the answer to in either direction.
The statutory provisions above are specific, and several of them apply far more often than people expect. Whether any of them applies to a particular set of dates is a question with an answer, and it takes one conversation to get it.
If you have been told it is too late
Get a second look. The consequence of being wrong about a limitations date is permanent, which cuts both ways: it is worth checking when someone has told you the case is dead, and it is worth checking when someone has told you there is plenty of time.
There is no charge to have the dates looked at, and no attorney's fee unless there is a recovery. What the first conversation covers is set out in the first meeting.
Call 713-521-0059.
Authorities
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 16 (limitations)
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 101 (Texas Tort Claims Act)
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 98B (intimate visual material).
S.B. 441, 89th Leg., R.S. (2025), adding Section 98B.009 (ten year limitations period)
Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.
This article is general information about Texas law, not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Limitations questions are fact specific and the consequence of getting one wrong cannot be undone.