Sep 1, 2026 · LawyerUnc editorial · New York · SOL · YMYL

New York gives you three years. The City gives you ninety days.

A private crash is CPLR 214(5): three years from the injury. A city bus, a pothole, or a cop car is a notice of claim in 90 days. Those are not the same clock.

Last checked Sep 1, 2026 · LawyerUnc editorial. Educational only, not legal advice.

The number people remember in New York is three. For a private driver, a slip in a store, a fall on a stoop that is not the City's, that is usually right. N.Y. C.P.L.R. 214(5) is the personal-injury subsection: an action to recover damages for a personal injury, three years from the injury, with carved-outs for other sections.

CPLR 214(4) is injury to property. Same three years, different thing. The dent in the bumper is not the injury to your neck. Pin the cite.

The trap is the public defendant. If the other vehicle was an MTA bus, or the hole was in a city street, or the actor was a municipal employee, General Municipal Law 50-e generally requires a notice of claim within ninety days after the claim arises. That notice is not the lawsuit. Miss it, and the three-year story often does not save the file. The suit against many municipalities is then one year and ninety days under GML 50-i, not CPLR 214(5).

Wrongful death is already a different statute (EPTL 5-4.1, two years from death). Medical malpractice is 214-a (two years and six months, with continuous treatment). Toxic and latent injuries can sit on 214-c. None of those are the grocery-store three-year number.

This is a map, not a filing deadline. Accrual, infancy, and late-notice applications exist. Last checked 1 September 2026 against CPLR 214 on the NYS Senate open legislation text (most recent revision 25 February 2022) and GML 50-e and 50-i (revisions 20 February 2026).