Statute of Limitations in California Injury Cases: A Guide
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How Long You Have to File: California Employment Deadlines by Claim Type
California employment law sets different deadlines depending on the type of claim you have. Discrimination and harassment claims must reach the Civil Rights Department (CRD) within three years of the unlawful act (Gov. Code § 12960). Wage theft, including unpaid overtime, missed break premiums, and waiting-time penalties, also carries a three-year window (Lab. Code § 1194 / § 1194.2). Whistleblower retaliation under Labor Code § 1102.5 is also three years. Wrongful termination claims based on public policy are two years, while PAGA civil penalty actions must be filed within one year of the last violation (Lab. Code § 2699). Each clock starts on a specific triggering event. Missing any one of them extinguishes the right to sue.
The table below gives you the full picture at a glance, so you can find your situation and move immediately to the section that applies to you.
Claim Type | Deadline | Clock Starts | Governing Authority
|
|---|---|---|---|
FEHA discrimination, harassment, retaliation (file with CRD) | 3 years | Date of the unlawful act | Gov. Code § 12960 |
FEHA civil lawsuit (after CRD Right-to-Sue) | 1 year | Date CRD issues Right-to-Sue notice | Gov. Code § 12965 |
Federal EEOC charge (California dual-filing state) | 300 days | Date of the alleged violation | EEOC |
Federal lawsuit (after EEOC Right-to-Sue) | 90 days | Date EEOC issues Right-to-Sue notice | EEOC |
Wrongful termination (public policy / Tameny claim) | 2 years | Date of termination | Tameny doctrine (CCP section to be confirmed by attorney reviewer) |
Wrongful termination (written employment contract) | 4 years | Date of termination | (CCP section to be confirmed by attorney reviewer) |
Whistleblower retaliation (Lab. Code § 1102.5) | 3 years | Date of the retaliatory act | Lab. Code § 1102.5 |
Wage and hour (unpaid OT, missed breaks, waiting time) | 3 years | Each paycheck on which wages were shorted | Lab. Code § 1194 / § 1194.2 |
PAGA civil penalty action | 1 year (tolled during 65-day LWDA review) | Date of last alleged Labor Code violation | Lab. Code § 2699 |
Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation Under FEHA: Two Sequential Deadlines
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protects employees against discrimination based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, and other characteristics, as well as against harassment and retaliation for protected activity. But FEHA relief requires completing two separate steps, each with its own clock.
Step 1: File a verified complaint with the CRD within three years. Before suing in court, you must file a verified complaint with the California Civil Rights Department. The three-year window runs from the date of the discriminatory, harassing, or retaliatory act, not from the date you discovered it or consulted a lawyer. This three-year period was created by Assembly Bill 9, effective January 1, 2020, and extended the prior one-year limit under Gov. Code § 12960.
The relate-back provision. If you submitted a CRD Intake Form within the three-year window but had not yet filed a formal verified complaint, Gov. Code § 12960(b) allows the verified complaint to relate back to the Intake Form date. This can preserve a claim that might otherwise appear untimely at the verified-complaint stage.
Step 2: File a civil lawsuit within one year of the Right-to-Sue notice. Once the CRD issues a Right-to-Sue notice, you have one year to file suit in California Superior Court under Gov. Code § 12965. Missing this second deadline forfeits your court claim even if your CRD filing was timely.
For a deeper look at age discrimination specifically, including how the three-year CRD clock applies to age-based terminations, see the firm’s Age Discrimination Statute of Limitations in CA guide.
How the Statute of Limitations Works When You Also File a Federal EEOC Charge
Employees in California can file discrimination charges with both the CRD (state) and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (federal). The two tracks run in parallel and carry different deadlines.
- In states without their own anti-discrimination agency, the federal deadline is 180 days from the alleged violation. Because California has the CRD, that deadline extends to 300 days for California employees.
- After the EEOC issues a Right-to-Sue notice, the employee has 90 days to file a civil lawsuit in federal court.
- Employees with strong claims often file both to preserve federal remedies and to take advantage of California’s broader FEHA protections simultaneously.
Important: complying with the EEOC process does not satisfy or pause your state CRD deadline, and vice versa. Each agency runs on its own clock.
Wrongful Termination Claims in California
Not all wrongful termination claims carry the same deadline. The nature of your claim determines which clock controls. For a comprehensive breakdown, see the firm’s dedicated Statute of Limitations for Wrongful Termination in California guide.
Which Wrongful Termination Deadline Applies to You?
- Public policy (Tameny) claims: two years from termination. If your termination violated a specific statute, a constitutional provision, or a clear public policy (for example, firing an employee for refusing to commit a crime, or terminating someone for filing a workers’ compensation claim), the claim sounds in tort and a two-year period generally applies. Attorney reviewer note: the specific Code of Civil Procedure section controlling this period should be confirmed before publication.
- Written employment contract claims: four years from termination. If you had a signed, written employment agreement and the employer breached it by firing you, the claim is contractual and a four-year period generally applies. Attorney reviewer note: the controlling CCP section should similarly be confirmed before publication.
- Nuanced situations: many terminations involve overlapping theories. For example, a termination that violates both a written contract and a whistleblower statute will trigger more than one clock. If your situation involves any complexity, a consultation is the faster path to certainty than attempting to self-diagnose the correct period.
Wage and Hour Claims: Unpaid Overtime, Missed Breaks, and Waiting-Time Penalties
Wage theft is among the most common employment violations in California, and the statute of limitations works differently here than most employees expect. Under Lab. Code § 1194 and § 1194.2, the following claims carry a three-year window:
- Unpaid minimum wages
- Unpaid overtime
- Missed meal period premiums (one additional hour of pay per missed meal period)
- Missed rest break premiums
- Waiting-time penalties for wages not paid at separation
The clock runs from each paycheck, not just the last one. Every paycheck on which wages were shorted is a separate accrual event. This means an employee terminated today can potentially recover three full years of underpayments, going back to the first shorted paycheck within that window.
Liquidated damages for minimum wage violations can be added to an underlying wage claim. Under Lab. Code § 1194.2, a suit for liquidated damages may be filed at any time before the underlying statute of limitations expires, so the liquidated damage claim does not carry a separate, shorter deadline.
Illustrative example: A warehouse worker in Los Angeles is paid straight time for all hours, including the roughly six hours of overtime she works each week. She is not told about her overtime rights and never receives the premium rate. She is laid off on July 10, 2025. She consults an attorney in September 2025. Even though the underpayments began years before her layoff, she can recover every shorted overtime hour going back to July 10, 2022, three years from the date she was laid off. Because each biweekly paycheck is its own accrual event, the total unpaid overtime, multiplied by six hours per week over 156 weeks, can be a substantial recovery. This is an illustrative scenario, not a description of a specific client matter.
PAGA Claims: A Separate One-Year Deadline with a Built-In Pause
The Private Attorneys General Act allows employees to sue on behalf of the State of California to collect civil penalties for Labor Code violations. PAGA is a distinct legal vehicle with its own limitations period and its own procedural requirements.
- One year from the last violation. A PAGA action must be filed within one year of the date of the last alleged Labor Code violation, per Lab. Code § 2699.
- The 65-day tolling window. Before filing a PAGA lawsuit, the employee must submit a notice to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA). The one-year clock is tolled (paused) for the 65-day period the LWDA has to review and potentially investigate. In practice, this means your effective filing deadline is extended by up to 65 days after you send the LWDA notice.
- Post-AB 2288 standing requirement (effective July 2024). Assembly Bill 2288 amended Lab. Code § 2699 to require that the PAGA representative plaintiff must have personally suffered each of the alleged Labor Code violations within the one-year limitations period. An employee who witnessed violations affecting coworkers but was not personally subjected to those same violations within the SOL window can no longer serve as the representative plaintiff for those claims.
Whistleblower Retaliation: The Three-Year Window Under Labor Code § 1102.5
Employees who reported suspected illegal conduct and were then punished for it have three years to bring a retaliation claim under Lab. Code § 1102.5. The clock starts on the date of the retaliatory act, such as the demotion, termination, pay cut, or schedule reduction that followed the protected report.
A § 1102.5 whistleblower claim can run alongside a FEHA retaliation claim if the conduct also involved a protected characteristic (for example, a female employee who reports wage fraud and is then fired in circumstances that also suggest sex discrimination). When both tracks exist simultaneously, each carries its own deadline: three years for the § 1102.5 claim, and the three-year CRD filing period plus the subsequent one-year court-filing window for the FEHA track. Tracking both simultaneously is one of the more common places where employees inadvertently let one clock expire while focusing on the other.
Six Mistakes That Can Kill an Employment Claim Before It Starts
Common Errors That Extinguish Otherwise Valid Claims
- Waiting for the employer’s internal investigation to conclude. HR investigations, internal grievance procedures, and employer “review” processes do not pause any statute of limitations. The legal clock runs regardless of what the company is doing internally. Employees who wait for an outcome from HR sometimes discover their CRD deadline passed months earlier.
- Assuming an EEOC intake form or a call to the EEOC satisfies the CRD filing requirement. Initiating federal contact does not automatically file a state complaint. The CRD and EEOC have a work-sharing agreement that can, in some circumstances, result in a cross-filing, but employees should not assume this happened without written confirmation. When in doubt, file separately with both agencies.
- Treating the PAGA notice as the lawsuit. Submitting an LWDA notice is a prerequisite to a PAGA suit, not the suit itself. The one-year limitations period continues to run (subject to the 65-day toll) after the notice is sent. Employees who send the notice and then wait without filing sometimes miss the deadline entirely.
- Underestimating the FEHA two-step. Filing timely with the CRD does not preserve your civil lawsuit indefinitely. After the CRD issues a Right-to-Sue notice, a separate one-year window opens under Gov. Code § 12965. Both deadlines must be met for the claim to reach a courtroom.
- Not documenting the triggering event on its actual date. Disputes over exactly when a retaliatory act occurred, when a final paycheck was issued, or when an employee learned of a discriminatory decision can affect which limitations period applies and when it began. Preserving contemporaneous documentation (emails, pay stubs, written notices) with their exact dates is critical.
- Conflating a § 1102.5 whistleblower claim with a FEHA retaliation claim. These are different legal theories with potentially different deadlines and different administrative prerequisites. An employee who files only one type of claim, believing it covers both, may inadvertently waive the other.
What This Means If You Were Recently Fired, Harassed, or Underpaid
Every day you wait is a day that does not come back. If you believe you were terminated for a discriminatory or retaliatory reason, the three-year CRD clock is already running, and it is a condition precedent to any civil lawsuit under FEHA. If your employer shorted your wages, every additional pay period that passes moves the earliest recoverable paycheck forward by two weeks. If you are considering a PAGA action, the one-year window is the shortest deadline in this article and it runs from the last violation, not from when you found out about it. The most important step you can take right now is to preserve every document you have: final pay stubs, termination letters, emails, performance reviews, and any communication related to the conduct at issue. Then speak with an employment attorney before the deadline question resolves itself against you.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Statute of Limitations in California Employment Cases
Does filing an EEOC charge pause my California CRD deadline?
Not automatically. The CRD and EEOC maintain a work-sharing agreement, but you should not assume a federal filing constituted a state filing without written confirmation. File with both agencies if you want both tracks preserved.
If I filed a CRD Intake Form but not a full verified complaint, did I protect my claim?
Potentially yes. Gov. Code § 12960(b) includes a relate-back provision: a verified complaint filed after the three-year window can relate back to a timely Intake Form. However, the Intake Form itself must have been submitted within the three-year period.
Can my wage claim really reach back three years if I was never told I was owed overtime?
Yes. The three-year statute of limitations for wage and hour claims under Lab. Code § 1194 runs from each paycheck on which wages were shorted, not from when you learned of the violation. Knowledge of the violation generally does not delay the accrual clock in wage cases.
I was demoted, not fired. Does the statute of limitations still apply?
Yes. A demotion, pay cut, schedule reduction, or other adverse employment action can trigger the statute of limitations on a discrimination, harassment, or retaliation claim, just as a termination does. The clock starts on the date of the adverse action.
What happens if my limitations deadline falls on a weekend or court holiday?
Generally, if the last day to file falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or official court holiday, the deadline shifts to the next court day. Confirm this with an attorney rather than relying on the general rule, since agency filing deadlines and court filing deadlines may be calculated differently.
Is a personal injury claim subject to the same deadlines?
Personal injury claims in California operate under different statutes from employment claims. For a broader overview of injury-related deadlines, see the firm’s California Personal Injury Law Overview and its companion article on Types of Personal Injury Cases: California Laws and Deadlines.
This article is general legal information about California employment law and is provided for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Setareh Law Group, and no such relationship is formed unless and until a written engagement agreement is signed by both parties. Statutes of limitations are fact-specific; the deadlines described here may be affected by circumstances not addressed in this article, including tolling doctrines, cross-filing agreements, and recent case law. Do not rely on this article to make decisions about your own legal matter without consulting a licensed California employment attorney.
If you believe you have an employment or wage claim and want to understand which deadline applies to your situation, contact Setareh Law Group for a free consultation. Our attorneys represent California workers on a contingency basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover for you.
Contact us today:
📞 Phone: 310-888-7771
✉️ Email: help@setarehlaw.com
🌐 Address: 420 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills CA, 90210
Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is unique, and outcomes depend on specific facts and circumstances. Consult with a qualified California employment attorney to discuss your individual situation.
Sources and Additional Resources
Authoritative sources cited
- Gov. Code § 12960
- Lab. Code § 1194 / § 1194.2
- Labor Code § 1102.5
- Lab. Code § 2699
- Gov. Code § 12965
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
- Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA)
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