Arizona Personal Injury Settlement Rules
Arizona gives you 2 years from the date of injury to file, under A.R.S. 12-542. Miss that deadline and the insurer stops returning your calls, because the claim is worthless once it is time-barred. Arizona uses pure comparative negligence (your award drops by your share of fault, but you are never cut off entirely). From an adjuster's chair, that changes the math in a useful way: if you are found 40% at fault on a claim that values at 30,000 dollars, you still collect 18,000 dollars. Even a driver found 90% at fault recovers the remaining 10%. That keeps shared-fault cases alive that would be dead in a contributory state. Arizona also has no cap on pain-and-suffering damages, and no cap on medical-malpractice damages either, because the Arizona Constitution flatly bans damage caps. Arizona is an at-fault (tort) state, not a no-fault state, so you pursue the at-fault driver or their insurer directly rather than your own PIP. One deadline runs much shorter than the headline 2 years: a claim against a city, county, school district or the state needs a written notice of claim inside 180 days, and the lawsuit itself inside 1 year. The figures here cover ordinary negligence. A serious or contested case needs a lawyer licensed in Arizona.
Arizona rules at a glance
- Statute of limitations
- 2 yr
- Fault rule
- Pure comparative negligence
- No-fault (PIP) state
- No
- General damages cap
- No cap on general damages.
- Medical-malpractice cap
- No cap on medical-malpractice damages (the Arizona Constitution bans damage caps).
The rules an adjuster applies in Arizona
Statute of limitations: 2 years
You have 2 years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit, under A.R.S. 12-542. The clock runs from the injury date, not from the point of maximum medical improvement, so a long course of treatment eats into the filing window rather than extending it. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00542.htm) Note: the strict-liability dog-bite claim has a shorter 1-year window. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/11/01025.htm) Two years reads as generous until you count backwards from it. An adjuster still requesting records at month 20 has left you about eight weeks to hire counsel, draft a complaint and file it, and a pending negotiation does not stop the clock. How long a personal injury claim takes sets out the usual sequence and where the delays sit.
Negligence rule: pure comparative
Arizona reduces your award by your fault share and never bars you outright, under A.R.S. 12-2505. At 10% fault you keep 90% of the value, at 50% you keep half, and even at 90% fault you still recover the last 10%. That is the comparative negligence rule at its purest, and the personal injury calculator on this site applies the reduction automatically once you select Arizona. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/02505.htm) Only ten jurisdictions still run the pure rule, so an Arizona claimant who would recover nothing across the state line still has a claim worth negotiating. Practically, that means the adjuster's fault argument in Arizona is a discount lever, not an off switch, and it should be argued as a percentage rather than conceded as a defeat. (source: https://www.mwl-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CONTRIBUTORY-NEGLIGENCE-COMPARATIVE-FAULT-LAWS-CHART-2.pdf)
Worked example: a 60,000 dollar claim at 30% fault
Take a claim an adjuster values at 60,000 dollars gross. Found 30% at fault, you keep 70% of it in Arizona, so 42,000 dollars. Now push your share to 55%. Arizona still pays: 45% of 60,000 dollars is 27,000 dollars. That is where the state line does real work. Utah, directly north, and Colorado both use a 50% bar, so the same 55%-at-fault claimant recovers nothing there, and even at exactly 50% they are barred while an Arizona claimant would take 30,000 dollars. The gap between 27,000 dollars and zero is not about the injury or the medical bills at all. It is entirely about which side of a state border the crash happened on. (source: https://www.mwl-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CONTRIBUTORY-NEGLIGENCE-COMPARATIVE-FAULT-LAWS-CHART-2.pdf)
Claims against a city, county or the state: 180 days
A claim against an Arizona public entity, public school or public employee runs on a far shorter clock than the general 2 years. Under A.R.S. 12-821.01 you must file a written notice of claim within 180 days after the cause of action accrues, and the statute is blunt about the consequence: any claim not filed inside that window "is barred and no action may be maintained thereon." (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00821-01.htm) Separately, A.R.S. 12-821 allows only 1 year, not 2, to bring the lawsuit itself against a public entity or employee. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00821.htm) That covers a pothole or road-design case, a city bus, a public school injury and a police vehicle collision. Missing the 180 days is the most common way an otherwise strong Arizona claim dies.
Tolling for injured children
Arizona pauses the clock for a claimant who was under 18 or of unsound mind when the cause of action accrued. A.R.S. 12-502 provides that "the period of such disability shall not be deemed a portion of the period limited for commencement of the action," and gives that person the same time after the disability is removed that everyone else gets. In practice a child injured at 10 still has a full 2 years running from their eighteenth birthday, which is why old childhood injuries are sometimes still live claims. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00502.htm) Claims against public entities run on their own timetable under A.R.S. 12-821.01, so a minor's claim against a school district should be treated as a separate deadline question and checked with a lawyer early. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00821-01.htm)
Damage caps: none
Arizona has no cap on non-economic (pain-and-suffering) damages and no medical-malpractice cap. The Arizona Constitution, Article 2, Section 31, bars any law limiting injury or death damages: "No law shall be enacted in this state limiting the amount of damages to be recovered for causing the death or injury of any person." (source: https://law.justia.com/constitution/arizona/2/31.htm) That is a constitutional ban rather than an ordinary statute, so unlike the caps struck down by courts in Florida, Georgia and Illinois, Arizona's position does not depend on a single decision that a later legislature might work around. A statutory damage cap cannot be enacted in Arizona at all without amending the constitution first.
Medical malpractice: no cap, but an expert affidavit gate
There is no dollar cap on an Arizona malpractice award, but there is a procedural gate that ends unprepared claims early. Under A.R.S. 12-2603 the claimant must certify in writing, filed and served with the claim, whether expert opinion testimony is needed to prove the standard of care. If it is, a preliminary expert opinion affidavit must be served with the initial Rule 26.1 disclosures, setting out the expert's qualifications, the factual basis for each claim, the acts or omissions said to breach the standard of care, and how they caused the damages. The court must dismiss the claim without prejudice if the affidavit is not filed, though it will allow a reasonable time to cure a defective one. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/02603.htm) Budget for an expert review before you value the claim with the medical malpractice calculator.
No-fault: no
Arizona is an at-fault (tort) state, so an injured party pursues the at-fault driver or their insurer directly rather than first-party PIP. There is no statutory injury threshold to clear before you can claim pain and suffering, which is a meaningful advantage over the no-fault states: in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan or New Jersey a soft-tissue claimant can be shut out of non-economic damages entirely. If your crash crossed a state line, the same table that lists filing deadlines by state sets the at-fault and no-fault systems side by side for all 50 states and DC. (source: https://www.enjuris.com/arizona/)
State quirk: strict-liability dog bites
Dog bites are strict liability under A.R.S. 11-1025, so the owner is liable regardless of the dog's prior history, with no "one bite" free pass. (source: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/11/01025.htm) The trade-off is the calendar. Arizona pairs that generous liability rule with a 1-year filing window for the strict-liability claim, half the ordinary 2 years, so a bite victim who waits out a year of insurer correspondence can lose the statutory claim while the ordinary negligence route is still open. Strict liability settles who pays but not how much, which is what the dog bite settlement calculator is for.
What Arizona does not limit
Arizona caps nothing on the damages side, so the whole negotiation is about proof rather than statutory ceilings. Medical bills, future care, wage loss and pain and suffering are all recoverable in whatever amount the evidence supports, in ordinary negligence and in malpractice alike, because of the constitutional ban in Article 2, Section 31. (source: https://law.justia.com/constitution/arizona/2/31.htm) The practical consequence for an Arizona claimant is that the two numbers that move a settlement are the documented out-of-pocket losses and the fault percentage, not a cap table. Both are things you can build evidence for, which is not true in a capped state.
Estimate an Arizona settlement
Preset to Arizona rules. The pure comparative negligence rule is applied automatically.
Negotiation range
Low, likely, highWhat the settlement is made of
- Economic damages kept$9,70029%
- Pain and suffering kept$24,25071%
- Removed by fault and caps$00%
The ring is the gross claim of $33,950. The two kept arcs sum to the net figure in the centre, and the red arc is what comparative fault and statutory caps take away.
Settlement breakdown
Gross $33,950| Component | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Medical expenses | $6,500 | 19.1% |
| Lost wages | $3,200 | 9.4% |
| Economic damages | $9,700 | 28.6% |
| Pain and suffering (2.5x economic) | $24,250 | 71.4% |
| Comparative-fault reduction (0%) | $0 | 0.0% |
| Likely settlement | $33,950 | 100.0% |
Share is measured against the gross claim of $33,950. Method: multiplier method, industry standard. Estimate for negotiation, not legal advice.
Rules applied
AZ- Negligence rule
- Pure comparative negligence
- Statute of limitations
- 2 years
- Non-economic cap
- None modeled
- Method
- Multiplier, 2.5x
Estimate only, not legal advice. The legal rules this calculator applies, each state's statute of limitations, comparative-negligence rule, and damage caps, are taken from official state statutes and US government sources, and every figure is cited inline so you can check it against the original. The multiplier method itself is the industry-standard approach bodily-injury adjusters use internally to set claim reserves, so treat the result as a negotiating benchmark rather than a promise: a real settlement still moves with insurer behavior, the strength of your evidence, and the jurisdiction you file in. Your figures stay on your device. Nothing you type is sent to a server, logged, or shared, and it clears when you close the tab. Take these numbers to a personal-injury attorney licensed in your state before you accept or reject any offer, especially for catastrophic injury or amounts above $50,000.
Arizona settlement questions
How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in Arizona?
2 years from the date of injury, under A.R.S. 12-542. The dog-bite strict-liability claim is shorter at 1 year. File before the deadline, because a time-barred claim is uncollectable.
Does being partly at fault reduce my Arizona settlement?
Yes, but it does not bar you. Arizona uses pure comparative negligence, so a 25% fault finding cuts a 20,000 dollar value to 15,000 dollars. You can recover even if you were mostly at fault.
How long do I have to sue a city or the state of Arizona?
Much less time. A.R.S. 12-821.01 requires a written notice of claim within 180 days of accrual, and a claim filed late is barred outright. A.R.S. 12-821 then gives only 1 year, not 2, to file the lawsuit against a public entity or employee.
Is there a cap on pain and suffering in Arizona?
No. The Arizona Constitution bans damage caps, so there is no statutory limit on non-economic damages in ordinary injury cases or in medical-malpractice cases.
What does Arizona require before a medical-malpractice case can proceed?
A written certification of whether expert testimony is needed and, where it is, a preliminary expert opinion affidavit served with the initial disclosures under A.R.S. 12-2603. Without it, the court must dismiss the claim without prejudice, though it will allow time to cure a defective affidavit.
Is Arizona a no-fault car insurance state?
No. Arizona is an at-fault (tort) state. You file against the at-fault driver's liability insurer rather than your own personal injury protection coverage, and there is no injury threshold to clear before claiming pain and suffering.
What happens to the deadline if the injured person is a child?
A.R.S. 12-502 does not count the period of minority against the limitation period, so a child injured at 10 still has the ordinary window running from their eighteenth birthday. Claims against public entities run on their own timetable, so check those separately.
How much does a 30% fault finding cost me in Arizona?
Thirty percent of the gross value. On a 60,000 dollar claim you keep 42,000 dollars. Push the same claim to 55% fault and Arizona still pays 27,000 dollars, where a 50%-bar state like Colorado or Utah would pay nothing.
About the editorial team
The PersonalInjuryCalculator.us editorial team documents how US insurance carriers value personal-injury claims and turns that into plain-English calculators and explainers. Every dollar range, multiplier, filing deadline, and damages cap published here is traced back to a named source. The team is not a law firm and includes no attorneys, so nothing on this site is legal advice. Speak with a licensed attorney in your state for serious or contested cases.
Sources
- A.R.S. 12-542 (statute of limitations)
- A.R.S. 12-2505 (comparative fault)
- A.R.S. 12-821 (1-year limit, public entities)
- A.R.S. 12-821.01 (180-day notice of claim)
- A.R.S. 12-502 (minority and incapacity tolling)
- A.R.S. 12-2603 (preliminary expert opinion affidavit)
- Arizona Constitution, Article 2, Section 31
- A.R.S. 11-1025 (dog-bite liability)
- Matthiesen Wickert and Lehrer 50-state comparative fault chart
- Enjuris Arizona overview