Filing deadlines by state and claim type — plus the two rules that most often move the start date.
Almost every mistake in small claims court is fixable. File in the wrong county and the case gets transferred. Use the wrong form and the clerk hands you the right one. Miss the statute of limitations and there is nothing to fix — the claim is extinguished, the court has no discretion to hear it, and no amount of merit brings it back.
That is why this page will not estimate. The period differs by state and, within a state, by what kind of claim it is: a written contract almost always gets longer than a verbal agreement, and property damage often runs on a different clock than personal injury.
Usually on the day the claim arose — the breach, the accident, the missed payment. Two things commonly move that date, and both are worth checking before concluding you are out of time. The discovery rule can start the clock when you reasonably should have found out about the harm rather than when it happened. And a partial payment or written acknowledgment of a debt can restart the period entirely in many states, which cuts both ways: it can revive a claim you thought was dead, and it can revive one against you.
File now, and sort the details afterwards. Filing stops the clock; being unsure does not. A claim filed with an imperfect form on the last available day survives, while a perfect claim filed the following week does not exist.