Common Questions / Arizona Claims
How long do I have to file an injury claim in Arizona, and how does Arizona law differ?
Arizona generally allows two years to file an injury suit, but claims against public entities require a formal notice within 180 days and suit within one year, one of the harshest traps in either state. Arizona also runs pure comparative fault and constitutionally forbids damage caps, and this firm is licensed there too.
The deadlines, led by the trap
Arizona's general rule mirrors Texas: two years from the injury to file suit, with the familiar caveats for minors and late-discovered harm. The trap is governmental. A claim against an Arizona city, county, school district, or the state itself, the bus, the police cruiser, the unmaintained road, requires a formal notice of claim served within 180 days, and the notice must state the facts and a specific sum for which the claim will settle, a demand for precision most people cannot meet alone six months after a hospitalization. Suit must then follow within one year. Miss either step and an otherwise strong case is simply gone, which is why the first question in any Arizona matter is whether a public entity lurks anywhere in the defendant chain.
Where Arizona is friendlier than Texas
Two structural differences run in the injured person's favor. Arizona applies pure comparative fault: there is no fifty-one percent bar, and a plaintiff found ninety percent responsible still recovers the remaining ten, a rule that keeps cases alive in Arizona that Texas law would extinguish, and that changes settlement leverage in every shared-fault dispute. And Arizona's constitution flatly forbids the Legislature from capping damages in injury and death cases, no medical malpractice caps, no noneconomic ceilings, a century-old protection that makes Arizona valuations a different exercise from the capped analyses elsewhere on this site. Same crash, different state line, materially different case.
One firm, both states
The I-10 corridor, family ties, work assignments, and winter migrations move Texans and Arizonans through each other's states constantly, and the crash does not care where your driver's license was issued. This firm is licensed in Texas and Arizona both, which means an El Paso family hit outside Tucson, a Phoenix visitor hurt in Houston, or a trucking case with defendants straddling the line can be evaluated and held by one office instead of brokered between two, with the conflict-of-laws and venue questions, which state's rules, which courthouse, worked as strategy rather than an afterthought. Where the right answer is local co-counsel for a courtroom appearance, that gets arranged candidly, but the case and the client stay with the lawyer they chose.
If your injury touches Arizona
Bring the facts before the 180-day fuse decides anything for you. Silver Key Law evaluates Arizona and cross-border matters in the same free consultation as everything else, in English or Spanish, from wherever you are.
Related: Texas Filing Deadlines · Contact Us · Submit Your Case · All Common Questions
Injured in Texas? Texas runs different deadlines, including a two-year window with a six-month notice for many government claims. See Texas claim deadlines or all Texas answers.
This page is general information about Arizona law, not legal advice about your specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes depend on facts; talk to a lawyer about yours.
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