-- A cyclist can track the two-year personal injury deadline correctly and still lose the case, because a shorter, hidden clock ran out first. The firm's new calculator surfaces every deadline that applies to a crash, not just the one people search for.
Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group (BALG), a national bicycle accident law firm representing injured cyclists, released a free Statute of Limitations Calculator available at bicycleaccidentlawyers.com/statute-of-limitations. It identifies every deadline that applies to a bike accident in the state where it happened.
One crash, several clocks
Most injured cyclists track one number: the personal injury statute of limitations, typically two years. Other clocks run at the same time, and most of them are shorter.
A claim against a government entity (a city bus, a pothole on a municipal road, a police vehicle) can carry a time limit measured in months. California gives six months. New York City gives 90 days for a municipal claim, against that state's three-year window for a standard personal injury claim.
Hit-and-run cases add another clock: some insurance policies require notice within 24 hours of the bike accident, buried in the policy rather than the law. No-fault (PIP) insurance runs shorter still in some cities, 30 days in New York and 14 days in Miami, and that clock can expire while the cyclist is still in the hospital.
Wrongful death and property damage claims run on their own timelines, and the direction is not always intuitive. California gives an extra year on property damage compared to injury claims, not less.
Miss a 90-day notice requirement and the two-year lawsuit deadline stops mattering. Negotiating with an insurer does not pause the clock, and neither does exchanging medical records or discussing settlement. Only filing suit, or a qualifying notice, does.
"The two-year number is the one everyone remembers, and it's usually the one that matters least," said Robert Goldwater, lead bicycle accident attorney at Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group. "I've seen cases where the injury claim was still open for eighteen months, and the case was already dead, because a 90-day government notice expired in the first three weeks. Nobody flagged it because nobody was looking for it."
What the calculator does
A user picks their state and the type of claim to file (personal injury, property damage, wrongful death, a claim against a government entity, or a hit-and-run) and, if they have it, the date of the crash. The tool returns an estimated deadline date for that fact pattern rather than one generic number. It is general information, not legal advice, and it says so.
The resource pairs the calculator with a comparison table across ten major U.S. cities: personal injury deadlines next to municipal notice requirements, negligence rules, and city-specific traps like the PIP windows above. It also lists the legal exceptions that can pause a deadline: minority tolling for injured minors, the discovery rule for injuries that surface later, incapacity (capped at seven years in Florida), fraud or concealment, active military service, and narrow judicial equitable tolling.
"A hit-and-run against a city vehicle can carry a 90-day notice requirement hiding inside a two-year lawsuit deadline," Goldwater said. "Miss the short one and the long one stops mattering. This calculator puts every deadline in one place, so cyclists find out from a tool instead of from a judge."
The Statute of Limitations Calculator is free at bicycleaccidentlawyers.com/statute-of-limitations, alongside the firm's settlement calculator and its state-by-state accident statistics and claim guides. BALG takes cases on contingency. No fee unless the firm recovers damages.
About Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group
Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group helps cyclists injured by negligent drivers, hit-and-run motorists, and dangerous road conditions in all 50 states. The firm is based in Phoenix, Arizona, and its attorneys can be reached 24/7 at 888-521-6377. Robert Goldwater is a cyclist representing cyclists.
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