Car Insurance Deadlines: How Long After an Accident Can You File a Claim?

You were hurt, or your property was damaged, in a car accident. You've been thinking about making an insurance claim to get compensation for your losses, but it's been some time since the accident happened. You're worried it now might be too late.

How much time do you have to bring a car insurance claim? Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. In general, the claim-filing deadlines you're up against fall into two categories:

• time limits imposed by state law, and
• time limits imposed by the insurance company.

As we'll see, state law imposed deadlines tend to be rigid and inflexible. They're designed to be claim killers, and they do that job very efficiently. Insurance company deadlines—when they apply to your claim—tend to be more vague. If the insurance company denies your claim because you waited too long to file it, the burden will be on the company to prove that it's denial was justified.

How might you minimize the chances of waiting too long? Start by reporting the accident.

Report an Accident as Soon as Possible

Reporting an accident means just that: Letting authorities and insurers know an accident happened. Depending on the circumstances, you might have to notify both the authorities and one or more auto insurers. Note, importantly, that reporting an accident to an insurance company isn't necessarily the same as filing an insurance claim.

Reporting to Law Enforcement and Other Authorities

In most states, you must report to local law enforcement (and maybe other local or state agencies) any accident involving:

• property damage of $500 or more
• personal injuries, or
• a death.

There might be reporting deadlines. Check your state law for specifics.

Reporting to Insurance Companies

Your obligations here depend on whether you're dealing with your own auto insurer or someone else's carrier. You must report an accident to your own company, and there are good reasons to do that as soon as you can. While you're not required to notify other insurers, it's usually a good idea to do so. We'll explain why.

Notify your own insurance company. Take a look at your auto policy. In it, you'll find a section about reporting accidents. Some policies specify a particular number of days, but most simply require that an accident be reported "promptly" or within a "reasonable period of time."

Best practice is to report any wreck to your own auto insurer as soon as you can. Even if you haven't decided whether to file a claim, others who were involved might be planning to bring claims against you. Reporting gives the company a fair chance to investigate what happened, get the police report, interview witnesses, and take other steps to determine potential liability under your policy.

Here's the risk of failing to timely report an accident: The insurance company might claim that your delay "prejudiced" (harmed) its ability to conduct an investigation, gather necessary evidence, and prepare for possible claims. When you promptly report an accident, you short circuit that potential defense.

Notifying other insurance companies. You don't have to notify insurance companies for others who were involved in an accident. But if there's any chance you might want to bring a claim against their policies, it's a good idea. Here's why.

If the insured driver doesn't report the accident and you later file a claim under their policy, there's a chance the insurer will try to deny coverage because its insured didn't provide timely notice. By reporting the accident, you can lessen the chance that the insured's failure to report might interfere with your ability to collect if you later decide to make a claim.

What If It's Already Been Some Time?

There's no harm in reporting the accident, even when you think you've waited too long. It's up to the insurance company to decide whether it asserts the "you waited too long" defense. The worst that happens is the insurer says you're out of luck, and you already knew there was a chance you'd get that response.

But you might be surprised. As we discuss below, this defense isn't a sure thing. The company might conclude that, given the facts, it makes more sense to defend or pay a claim than to fight it on a late-notice technicality.

A Car Insurance Claim and How You Start One

There are two kinds of car insurance claims. In today's connected world, starting either kind is easy.

Types of Claims

A "first-party" claim is one you make under your own insurance policy. For example, if you live in a no-fault insurance state and bring a claim for personal injury protection (PIP) benefits, that's a first-party claim. A claim under your policy's collision coverage is, too.

A "third-party" claim, by contrast, is a claim you bring against another person's auto insurance coverage. When you think another driver is responsible for an accident that injured you, you can bring a claim under that driver's auto liability insurance. A claim against the government alleging that a road was improperly designed or maintained is also a third-party claim.

Starting a Claim

Starting a claim means letting the insurance company know that you've been in an accident, and you intend to file a claim for your car accident injuries, your vehicle damage, or both. You can do this by:

• calling your agent, or the claims number on the back of your proof of insurance card
• filing your claim online, either through the insurer's website or by using its mobile app, or
• sending a letter to the company's claims office.

If you decide to phone in your claim, follow up with a written filing as well, just to be on the safe side.

How Much Information Should You Provide?

It depends, once again, on whether you're dealing with your own or someone else's insurer. You have a duty to cooperate with your own insurance company. Among other things, this means you're required to provide the information it reasonably needs to investigate potential claims, figure out who might be at fault, and protect its interests.

You owe no such duty to another driver's insurance company. Provide enough details to let the carrier know there was a wreck, when and where it happened, who was involved (to the extent you know), that you were injured or your property was damaged, and that you're bringing or considering a claim against the company's insured. You're not obligated—at this point—to say anything more.

State Law Claim Deadlines

Every state has laws that impact—directly or indirectly—how much time you have to file an insurance claim. These laws fall into two groups:

• laws that directly limit your time to file a claim, and
• laws that limit your time to file a lawsuit, indirectly limiting your time to bring a claim.

Laws Directly Limiting Your Time to File a Claim

A small handful of states, mostly those with no-fault insurance laws, have rules directly limiting your time to file claims for PIP benefits. New York is a good example. The Code of State Regulations, at 11 NYCRR 65-1.1(d) (2025), requires that written notice of an accident be given to a no-fault insurer "as soon as reasonably practicable, but in no event more than 30 days after the date of the accident... ."

The same New York regulation mandates notice of a claim for medical expenses. The injured person (or their representative) must submit written notice of the claim "as soon as reasonably practicable but, in no event later than 45 days after the date services are rendered."

If you're unsure whether state law directly limits your time to file a claim, speak to an attorney.

Laws Limiting Your Time to File a Lawsuit

Every state has laws—called statutes of limitations—that limit your time to file a lawsuit in court. Typical car accident statutes of limitations range from two to four years. File your case after the statute of limitations has expired, and the judge will have no choice but to throw it out of court.

True, we're concerned with insurance claim deadlines, not lawsuit-filing deadlines. But the statute of limitations puts a critical, indirect limit on your time to file an insurance claim. Why? Suppose you file a car accident insurance claim, and the insurer denies it. How do you force the company to pay? File a lawsuit in court. Once the threat of a lawsuit is gone—that is, once the statute of limitations expires—you have no way to force an insurance company to pay you.

As a practical matter, if your time under the car accident statute of limitations is running short, you need to be thinking more about a lawsuit and less about an insurance claim. But don't risk going it alone. Statutes of limitations are among the most complex and difficult to understand of all laws. Get help from a lawyer, and don't dely.

Insurance Company Claim Deadlines

An insurance company claim deadline is a notice or claim-filing time limit found in an insurance policy. Because these are policy—meaning contractual—deadlines, they only apply if:

• they're in your insurance policy, and
• you're thinking about making a first-party claim for benefits.

Stated a bit differently, you only need to be concerned with insurance company deadlines when you're making a first-party claim. Because you're a party to the insurance contract, you're bound by its terms—including any notice or claim-filing deadlines.

When you're bringing a third-party claim against another driver's insurance policy, you aren't a party to that contract. So, the deadlines in that policy aren't binding against you.

Why Do These Deadlines Matter?

Remember what we discussed earlier: When you've been in a wreck, your insurance company wants to know as quickly as possible so it can do an investigation, determine who was to blame, and plan for possible liability. A notice or claim-filing deadline gives the insurance company a way to avoid paying otherwise-legitimate claims. Fail to meet the deadline and the insurer can argue that you "breached" (violated) the policy, letting them off the payment hook.

Proving You Missed the Deadline

It's the insurance company's burden to prove that you breached the policy by failing to provide timely notice or by bringing a claim too late. When the policy mandates notice or a claim within a specific number of days (for example, within 30 days after an accident), proving you were late is easy.

By contrast, when the policy requires you to give notice "promptly," or within a "reasonable amount of time," there's much more room for argument. A "reasonable" time period, for instance, could depend on a variety of facts and circumstances. Did you have to wait for a police report? Was there a delay in the onset of your injury symptoms? Were your injuries so incapacitating that you couldn't provide the necessary notice?

A delay of several months or a year or more might be tough to explain. But a judge is less likely to be sympathetic to claims of prejudicial delay when you've acted with reasonable diligence and it looks like the company is trying to stiff you based on a technicality.

Was the Delay Prejudicial?

Even if the insurer can show you didn't act as quickly as you should have, that doesn't end the inquiry. The insurance company also needs to show that your delay was prejudicial, meaning it harmed the carrier's ability to investigate or defend the claim. Absent that showing, your breach of the policy wasn't material, meaning it was harmless. In that case, the insurer still has to pay.

Property Damage Example

Say your car door got badly dented while you were shopping at a grocery store. You discovered the damage right away, took plenty of pictures, and even got a copy of the grocery store's surveillance video.

The store's video showed another driver parked next to you and slammed their door against yours, clearly causing the dent. It also captured the offending driver's license plate number. Finally, assume the surveillance footage is time-stamped, proving when the damage occurred.

For whatever reason, you decided not to immediately file a claim with your car insurance company. Six months later, though, the dent started to bother you. You called your insurance agent, reported the incident, and started a property damage claim under your comprehensive coverage.

Did you timely file your vehicle damage claim? Your auto insurer is likely to say no. It's will argue you waited too long, compromising the company's ability to assess the damage and identify the responsible driver. And that's a reasonable argument, too. On the face of things, six months seems like too long to report a claim like yours.

Keep in mind, though, that proving a lengthy delay doesn't end your claim. On these facts, the insurance company will have a hard time showing any real prejudice. With the video footage you provide, the insurance adjuster can track down the offending vehicle. While the company might have to cover the cost of your repairs, it can go after the other driver for its out-of-pocket expense.

Next Steps in the Car Insurance Claim Process

Especially in the case of a first-party auto insurance claim, any delay in starting the process can put you at a disadvantage. The accident reporting and claim-filing deadline in your policy gives the insurer an easy way to deny (or threaten to deny) coverage. That's a battle you don't want to fight on your own.

If you find yourself in this situation, think about hiring legal counsel to review the facts and your policy language. They can give you a candid opinion of your chances, and help you navigate your way through the insurer's arguments. Here's how to find an attorney who's right for you.