Kentucky Crash Filing Deadlines in Louisville, KY One Year, Two Years and Payment Dates

The general personal injury period is one year

KRS 413.140(1)(a) requires an action for an injury to the person of the plaintiff to be commenced within one year after the cause of action accrued. That is among the shortest such periods in the country, and it is the figure that applies to injury claims generally rather than to motor vehicle claims specifically. Knowing the general rule matters even in a crash case, because claims that are not motor vehicle tort claims within the meaning of the reparation statutes may be measured by it, and because it explains why Kentucky practitioners treat the calendar as an early rather than a late concern.

The motor vehicle period is written into the reparation act

KRS 304.39-230(6) supplies the deadline for a tort action arising from a motor vehicle accident that the no-fault statute has not abolished. Such an action may be commenced not later than two years after the injury, the death, or the date of issuance of the last basic or added reparation payment, whichever occurs later. The choice of the later date is the important part: where reparation benefits are still being issued, the two-year period runs from the last of them rather than from the crash. Two consequences follow. A claim can remain timely well beyond two years after the collision, and a claim can also expire while a client believes the crash date controls, because benefits stopped earlier than expected.

The replacement payment trap

The same subsection anticipates an obvious problem with a deadline tied to a payment date. Where a payment is reissued in the same amount because the original was lost, stolen or never delivered, that reissued payment is a replacement payment and does not extend the date from which the period runs. The subsection also gives a mechanism for finding out: on written request, the reparation obligor must state whether a particular payment was a replacement payment. Anyone relying on a payment date to establish timeliness has a reason to send that written request rather than assume, since the difference between a benefit payment and a replacement of one can be the difference between a filed claim and a barred one.

Claims for the benefits themselves have separate deadlines

KRS 304.39-230(1) governs an action for basic or added reparation benefits: it must be commenced not later than two years after the reparation claimant suffers the loss and either knows, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should know, that the loss was caused by the accident, or not later than four years after the accident, whichever is earlier. Where benefits have been paid for loss arising otherwise than from death, an action for further benefits may be commenced not later than two years after the last payment. Subsection (2) addresses survivor's benefits, allowing an action not later than one year after the death or four years after the accident, whichever is earlier, with a similar provision measured from the last payment where benefits have been paid. These are different periods from the tort period, and they can expire while a liability claim is still pending.

Legal disability is treated differently here than elsewhere

Kentucky's general tolling statute, KRS 413.170, provides that where a person entitled to bring an action was at the time the cause of action accrued an infant or of unsound mind, the action may be brought within the same number of years after the removal of the disability, and it identifies the periods it applies to as those in KRS 413.090 to 413.160. The reparation act contains its own provision, and KRS 304.39-230(5) states that in the case of legal disability the period of that disability is deemed part of the time limited by the section. Because those two provisions do not read the same way, the assumption that a minor's motor vehicle deadline is automatically extended is not one to make without checking the specific claim against both texts.

Notice provisions inside insurance policies are not statutes

Separate from anything in the statutes, coverage claims carry contractual deadlines. Uninsured and underinsured motorist claims are the common example: KRS 304.39-320(3) builds a series of thirty-day windows around written notice of a tentative settlement, consent, waiver or payment to preserve subrogation, and the policy itself will add prompt notice and cooperation requirements. Complying with a statutory limitation period while missing a policy notice provision produces the same practical result as missing the statute. Both belong on the same calendar.

Practical calendaring after a Kentucky crash

The workable habit is to write down four dates at the beginning of a file: the crash date, one year out, two years out, and four years out, then add the date of every reparation payment as it is received and confirm in writing whether any of them was a replacement payment. Where a claim involves a minor, a person under a disability, a governmental entity or an out-of-state defendant, the analysis gets more complicated rather than simpler. This page describes Kentucky limitation statutes in general terms and is not legal advice; deadlines in an actual claim should be confirmed with the attorney who advertises on this site well before any of them approaches.