Limitation period

A limitation period is the legal deadline within which a claim must be filed in court, after which the right to sue is generally lost.

For an ordinary personal injury claim in Malaysia, the deadline is six years from the accident.^[1] A fatal accident claim brought by dependants is different and much shorter, at three years from the date of death, and courts treat it as an absolute cut-off.^[2] A claim against the government runs on its own shorter period again.

These are outer limits, not planning targets. Evidence and witness memory fade long before any deadline arrives, so starting early protects the claim far better than waiting does.

Claim deadlines explained sets out each deadline in detail.