Indiana Personal Injury Statute of Limitations and Fault Rules
Indiana gives you 2 years to file, under IC 34-11-2-4(a), and on paper it looks like an ordinary 51 percent bar comparative state. The Indiana Comparative Fault Act says contributory fault "diminishes proportionately the amount awarded as compensatory damages" but "does not bar recovery" except under IC 34-51-2-6, which bars a claimant whose contributory fault "is greater than the fault of all persons whose fault proximately contributed to the claimant's damages." Read that clause slowly, because the whole state turns on it. The bar falls only when your share is GREATER than everybody else's combined. At exactly 50 percent you still collect half. At 51 percent you collect nothing. What makes Indiana genuinely unusual is not the bar, it is what the Act leaves out. IC 34-51-2-1(b)(1) says the chapter does not apply to an action against a qualified health care provider for medical malpractice, and IC 34-51-2-2 says it "does not apply in any manner to tort claims against governmental entities or public employees." In both of those categories Indiana's older and much harsher common law survives untouched. The Indiana Supreme Court wrote in 2025 that "the MMA applies contributory negligence," and in 2023 that government tort claims are "still governed by common-law principles such as contributory negligence." So the same person, hurt on the same day with the same injury, is in a comparative fault state or an all-or-nothing contributory negligence state depending only on who hurt them. Two more sets of Indiana numbers matter. Medical malpractice runs against a TOTAL cap on all damages combined, 1.8 million dollars for acts after June 30, 2019, of which a qualified provider pays at most 500,000 dollars and the state Patient's Compensation Fund pays the balance. A claim against a government body is capped at 700,000 dollars for one person and 5 million dollars for one occurrence, carries no punitive damages at all, and dies on a 180-day or 270-day notice clock that runs out long before the 2 years do. Indiana is an at-fault (tort) state, not a no-fault PIP state. Any contested Indiana claim, and every malpractice or government claim, needs a lawyer licensed in Indiana.
Indiana rules at a glance
- Statute of limitations
- 2 yr
- Fault rule
- Modified comparative negligence (51% bar)
- No-fault (PIP) state
- No
- General damages cap
- No cap on general damages, except a 300,000 dollar limit on love and companionship in the wrongful death of an unmarried adult with no dependents.
- Medical-malpractice cap
- Medical-malpractice TOTAL damages capped at 1.8 million dollars for acts after June 30, 2019. A qualified provider pays at most 500,000 dollars of it.
The rules an adjuster applies in Indiana
Statute of limitations: 2 years
IC 34-11-2-4(a) provides that an action for "injury to person or character," for "injury to personal property," or for "a forfeiture of penalty given by statute" must be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrues. That two-year figure is the outside limit for an ordinary private defendant. It is not the operative deadline in three common situations covered below: a claim against a city, county or school district has to be noticed within 180 days, a claim against the state within 270 days, and a malpractice claim runs on its own occurrence-based clock in IC 34-18-7-1 with a medical review panel in front of it. Wrongful death has its own two-year period in IC 34-23-1-1, measured from the death and brought by the personal representative. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-11-2-4) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-23-1-1)
Negligence rule: modified comparative (51% bar)
IC 34-51-2-5 sets the default: "In an action based on fault, any contributory fault chargeable to the claimant diminishes proportionately the amount awarded as compensatory damages for an injury attributable to the claimant's contributory fault, but does not bar recovery except as provided in section 6 of this chapter." IC 34-51-2-6 is that exception, and its wording is exact: the claimant is barred "if the claimant's contributory fault is greater than the fault of all persons whose fault proximately contributed to the claimant's damages." Greater than, not equal to. The jury instruction statute spells out the same line in percentages: under IC 34-51-2-8(b)(2) the jury returns a verdict for the defendants once the claimant's fault is "greater than fifty percent (50%) of the total fault," and under IC 34-51-2-8(b)(3), where the claimant's fault "is not greater than fifty percent (50%)," the jury goes on to fix full damages and then reduces them by the claimant's share. That is modified comparative negligence with the bar set one point above an even split, the same line the Texas injury rules page describes, and the state-by-state table shows where every other jurisdiction drew it. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-5) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-6) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-8)
Worked example: a 60,000 dollar claim at 30%, at 50% and at 51%
Take a claim an adjuster values at 60,000 dollars gross. At 30 percent fault you keep 70 percent, so the claim is worth 42,000 dollars. At exactly 50 percent your fault is not greater than everyone else's combined, the bar in IC 34-51-2-6 does not fall, and the claim is worth 30,000 dollars. At 51 percent it is worth nothing at all. One percentage point moves the same file from 30,000 dollars to zero. Compare the neighbours. In a pure comparative state a 51 percent finding still pays 29,400 dollars, because there is no bar to fall. Under Georgia's stricter 50 percent bar that same even split pays nothing, where Indiana pays 30,000 dollars. And in the handful of states that kept pure contributory negligence for every claim, the 30 percent version of this file is worth zero rather than 42,000 dollars, which is what the Virginia injury rules page works through. The Ohio injury rules draw the line exactly where Indiana draws it. Run your own figures through the personal injury calculator before you answer an offer. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-6)
The carve-outs: two whole categories the Act never reaches
This is the part of Indiana law that catches people out, and it is written into the front of the chapter. IC 34-51-2-1(a) says the chapter "governs any action based on fault that is brought to recover damages for injury or death to a person or harm to property," and then IC 34-51-2-1(b) removes an action "brought against a qualified health care provider ... for medical malpractice" and any action that accrued before January 1, 1985. IC 34-51-2-2 removes a second category outright: the chapter "does not apply in any manner to tort claims against governmental entities or public employees under IC 34-13-3." Those statutes say only what the Act does not govern. What governs instead comes from the courts, and both answers are the same. In Abbas v. Neter-Nu, No. 24S-CT-435 (Ind. June 26, 2025), the Indiana Supreme Court noted that the case before it involved comparative fault "whereas the MMA applies contributory negligence," and explained that "under a contributory-negligence scheme, any fault attributable to the claimant may bar recovery if the fault proximately caused the claimant's damages." In Davidson v. State, No. 22S-CT-318 (Ind. June 21, 2023), the same court held that apportioning damages in a mixed-defendant case "has no effect on the underlying government tort claims, which are still governed by common-law principles such as contributory negligence." So Indiana runs two fault systems at once, and which one you are in is decided by the identity of the defendant, not by anything you did. The contributory negligence guide explains how brutal that rule is in practice: it is the same all-or-nothing bar that Maryland and Alabama apply to every injury claim in the state, not just to two carved-out categories. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-1) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-2) (source: https://public.courts.in.gov/Decisions/api/Document/Opinion?Id=VFYBuGpZMbhZOHN40lGJo3qeSEFRQr127pE08QO5wjxuAICnY6ig2kke3ykHQ0eO0) (source: https://caseclips.courts.in.gov/2023/06/26/davidson-v-state-no-22s-ct-318-__n-e-3d-__-ind-june-21-2023/)
Sue everyone at once: Davidson's one-lawsuit rule
Because Indiana runs two fault systems, a crash with both a private and a government defendant creates a procedural trap that has nothing to do with the deadline. In Davidson the plaintiff won a judgment in one county against a trucking company, then sued the State and its transportation department in another county over the same collision. The Indiana Supreme Court held the second suit was barred by issue preclusion. The reasoning is that although government tort claims themselves sit outside the Act, the ACTION is still governed by it, and IC 34-51-2-7(b)(1) and IC 34-51-2-8(b)(1) make the jury "consider the fault of all persons who caused or contributed to cause the alleged injury" whether or not they could be named as parties. Apportioning 100 percent of the fault in the first suit therefore decided, conclusively, that the omitted defendants had none. The court put the practical rule in one line: "a plaintiff seeking tort damages from both government and non-government defendants must sue all such tortfeasors in one lawsuit." Identifying every possible defendant early is not tidiness in Indiana, it is the difference between a claim and no claim. (source: https://caseclips.courts.in.gov/2023/06/26/davidson-v-state-no-22s-ct-318-__n-e-3d-__-ind-june-21-2023/) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-51-2-7)
General damages cap: none, except in one wrongful death case
Indiana puts no statutory ceiling on non-economic damages in an ordinary personal injury case, so a jury valuing a permanent injury is not working against a limit and the multiplier method has room to run. There is one narrow exception, and it is easy to miss because it lives in the wrongful death article rather than the damages one. IC 34-23-1-2 defines an "adult person" as an unmarried individual with no dependents who is not a child, or a married individual with no dependents whose death was caused by their spouse. In that case the recoverable damages may not include grief or punitive damages, may include loss of the adult person's love and companionship, and the aggregate award for love and companionship "may not exceed three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000)." The jury is not told about the limit; the court reduces the verdict afterwards. A parent or child claiming under the section must prove "a genuine, substantial, and ongoing relationship" with the deceased, and no evidence of the adult person's lost earnings may be heard at all. The wrongful death calculator works through what that leaves. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-23-1-2)
Medical-malpractice cap: 1.8 million dollars TOTAL, not 1.8 million on pain and suffering
IC 34-18-14-3(a) caps "the total amount recoverable for an injury or death of a patient," which means every category of loss combined, medical bills and lost income included, not a pain-and-suffering ceiling sitting on top of full economic recovery. It behaves like the Virginia total cap rather than like the non-economic-only limits described in how a damage cap works. The figure is set by the date of the act of malpractice, not by the date you file: 1.8 million dollars for an act after June 30, 2019; 1.65 million dollars for an act after June 30, 2017 and before July 1, 2019; 1.25 million dollars for an act after June 30, 1999 and before July 1, 2017; 750,000 dollars for an act after December 31, 1989 and before July 1, 1999; and 500,000 dollars for an act before January 1, 1990. An old act of malpractice therefore carries an old ceiling. Because the cap limits everything rather than only the subjective losses, run your bills through the medical expenses calculator first: in an Indiana malpractice case those bills eat the cap rather than sit beneath it. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-18-14-3)
Who actually pays: 500,000 dollars from the provider, the balance from the Patient's Compensation Fund
The cap has two layers. Under IC 34-18-14-3(b) a health care provider qualified under the article "is not liable for an amount in excess of" 500,000 dollars for an act of malpractice after June 30, 2019 (400,000 dollars between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2019, and 250,000 dollars before that). Under IC 34-18-14-3(c), any amount due from a judgment or settlement above the total liability of all liable providers "shall be paid from the patient's compensation fund under IC 34-18-15." That chapter then sets out how the Fund discharges the obligation, by lump sum, by an agreement for periodic payments, by purchasing an annuity, or a combination, and IC 34-18-15-3 sets the court procedure once a provider has agreed to pay its policy limits and the claimant wants more: a petition filed in the named court or in Marion County, served on the insurance commissioner, who may settle or file written objections within 20 days. The Indiana Supreme Court described the same architecture in Ind. Dep't of Ins. v. Everhart (Ind. 2012), reading the then-current figures: the Act limits the qualified provider to the first slice, and "if a judgment or settlement fixes damages in excess of a qualified health care provider's liability, then a plaintiff may recover excess damages from the PCF." One consequence is easy to miss: because the Comparative Fault Act does not reach these claims, joint and several liability survives in malpractice, so each negligent provider is liable for the whole damages award regardless of its share, a point the court restated in Abbas in 2025. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-18-14-3) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-18-15) (source: https://caseclips.courts.in.gov/2012/01/26/idoi-v-everhart/) (source: https://public.courts.in.gov/Decisions/api/Document/Opinion?Id=VFYBuGpZMbhZOHN40lGJo3qeSEFRQr127pE08QO5wjxuAICnY6ig2kke3ykHQ0eO0)
Medical malpractice procedure: a review panel first, on a 2-year occurrence clock
Indiana does not let a malpractice case start in court. Under IC 34-18-8-4 an action against a health care provider may not be commenced in an Indiana court before the claimant's proposed complaint has been presented to a medical review panel and "an opinion is given by the panel." The limitation period is stricter than the general two years in a way that matters: IC 34-18-7-1(b) requires the claim to be filed "within two (2) years after the date of the alleged act, omission, or neglect," which runs from the act itself rather than from the date you discovered the harm, "except that a minor less than six (6) years of age has until the minor's eighth birthday to file." IC 34-18-7-1(a) applies that period to all persons "regardless of minority or other legal disability," subject to the exceptions in the section. Filing the proposed complaint stops the clock: IC 34-18-7-3(a) tolls the limitation "to and including a period of ninety (90) days following the receipt of the opinion of the medical review panel by the claimant," and a proposed complaint counts as filed when it is delivered or mailed by registered or certified mail to the commissioner. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-18-8-4) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-18-7-1) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-18-7-3)
Suing a city, county, school district or other political subdivision: 180 days
IC 34-13-3-8(a) bars a claim against a political subdivision unless notice is filed with the governing body of that political subdivision AND, unless IC 27-1-29 has expired, with the Indiana political subdivision risk management commission, "within one hundred eighty (180) days after the loss occurs." Subsection (b) provides the one relief valve: the claim is not barred for failure to notify the risk management commission if the political subdivision was not a member of the political subdivision risk management fund when the act or omission took place. IC 34-13-3-10 sets out what the notice must contain, in a short and plain statement: the circumstances that brought about the loss, its extent, the time and place it occurred, the names of everyone involved if known, the amount of damages sought, and the claimant's residence at the time of the loss and at the time of filing. A pothole, a school bus, a municipal vehicle or a city-owned building puts you on this 180-day clock, and the two-year limitation still has to be met on top of it. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-8) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-10)
Suing the state of Indiana: 270 days, with a wrong-agency safety valve
IC 34-13-3-6(a) bars a claim against the state unless notice is filed with the attorney general or the state agency involved "within two hundred seventy (270) days after the loss occurs." Indiana then does something most states do not: it forgives serving the wrong agency. The same subsection provides that if notice to the state agency involved "is filed with the wrong state agency, that error does not bar a claim if the claimant reasonably attempts to determine and serve notice on the right state agency." The attorney general prescribes the claim form by rule, and copies must be available from every state agency and from every operator of a state vehicle. IC 34-13-3-9 covers incapacity: if a person is incapacitated and cannot give the notice required by section 6 or section 8, the claim is barred unless notice is filed within 180 days after the incapacity is removed. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-6) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-9)
Government damages: 700,000 dollars a person, 5 million an occurrence, no punitive damages
IC 34-13-3-4(a) caps "the combined aggregate liability of all governmental entities and of all public employees, acting within the scope of their employment and not excluded from liability under section 3 of this chapter." For injury to or death of one person in any one occurrence the ceiling is 700,000 dollars for a cause of action accruing on or after January 1, 2008 (500,000 dollars from January 1, 2006, and 300,000 dollars before that), and for injury to or death of all persons in that occurrence the ceiling is 5 million dollars. Note what "combined aggregate" does: adding defendants does not add money, so a multi-victim incident such as a bus crash divides one 5 million dollar pool among everyone hurt. IC 34-13-3-4(b) then removes an entire remedy: a governmental entity or an employee acting within the scope of employment "is not liable for punitive damages." Put those numbers next to the contributory negligence rule the same claim runs on and you have the hardest category of case in the state. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-4)
Injured children and claimants under a legal disability
For ordinary injury claims IC 34-11-6-1 is short and generous: "A person who is under legal disabilities when the cause of action accrues may bring the action within two (2) years after the disability is removed." Malpractice is treated far more tightly, as it usually is. IC 34-18-7-1(a) applies the malpractice period "to all persons regardless of minority or other legal disability," and the only allowance in IC 34-18-7-1(b) is that a minor less than six years of age has until their eighth birthday to file. So a child injured by an ordinary negligent driver at fourteen has time after turning eighteen, while a child injured by a qualified health care provider at fourteen is on the same two-year occurrence clock as an adult. On the government side, IC 34-13-3-9 gives an incapacitated claimant 180 days after the incapacity is removed to file the notice. (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-11-6-1) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-18-7-1) (source: https://iga.in.gov/laws/2025/ic/titles/34#34-13-3-9)
No-fault: no
Indiana is an at-fault (tort) state, not a no-fault PIP state, so you claim against the at-fault driver's liability insurer rather than your own first-party benefits, and there is no injury threshold to clear before a pain-and-suffering claim exists. That makes the fault percentage the single most valuable fact in an Indiana car accident claim, because it is what decides both how much you recover and, above 50 percent, whether you recover at all. Build the fault record early and put it in the demand letter; if the insurer is arguing you were half to blame, that is the point to read when to hire a personal injury lawyer. (source: https://www.iii.org/article/background-on-no-fault-auto-insurance)
Estimate an Indiana settlement
Preset to Indiana rules. The modified comparative negligence (51% bar) 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
IN- Negligence rule
- Modified comparative (51% bar)
- 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 by the team who researches and reviews this site, 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.
Indiana settlement questions
How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in Indiana?
Two years after the cause of action accrues, under IC 34-11-2-4(a). That is the deadline for an ordinary private defendant. A claim against a city, county or school district must be noticed within 180 days, a claim against the state within 270 days, and a malpractice claim runs two years from the act itself and has to go to a medical review panel first.
Does being partly at fault bar my Indiana claim?
Only if your share is greater than everyone else's combined. IC 34-51-2-6 bars a claimant whose contributory fault "is greater than the fault of all persons whose fault proximately contributed to the claimant's damages." At exactly 50 percent you still recover half. At 51 percent you recover nothing.
What is a 60,000 dollar Indiana claim worth if I was 30% at fault?
42,000 dollars, because 30 percent is not greater than the other 70 percent. At exactly 50 percent the same claim is worth 30,000 dollars, and at 51 percent it is worth nothing. In Virginia, Maryland or Alabama, which use pure contributory negligence, that same claim at 30 percent fault is worth zero.
Is Indiana a comparative fault state or a contributory negligence state?
Both, depending on who you are suing. The Comparative Fault Act governs ordinary claims, but IC 34-51-2-1(b)(1) excludes malpractice against a qualified health care provider and IC 34-51-2-2 excludes tort claims against governmental entities and public employees. The Indiana Supreme Court has confirmed that contributory negligence still governs both of those categories, so in a malpractice or government case your own fault can end the claim outright.
What is the medical-malpractice cap in Indiana?
1.8 million dollars for an act of malpractice after June 30, 2019, under IC 34-18-14-3(a)(5). Unlike most state caps it limits total damages, medical bills and lost income included, not just pain and suffering. A qualified provider pays at most 500,000 dollars of it and the Patient's Compensation Fund pays the balance. Older acts of malpractice carry the older, lower ceilings.
How long do I have to sue an Indiana city, county or school district?
Notice has to be filed within 180 days of the loss under IC 34-13-3-8, with the governing body of the political subdivision and with the Indiana political subdivision risk management commission. Against the state it is 270 days under IC 34-13-3-6, and serving the wrong state agency does not bar the claim if you reasonably tried to find the right one. The two-year limitation still applies on top.
How much can I recover from an Indiana government body?
700,000 dollars for injury to or death of one person in one occurrence for a cause of action accruing on or after January 1, 2008, and 5 million dollars for everyone injured in that occurrence, under IC 34-13-3-4(a). The cap is a combined aggregate across all governmental entities and employees, so extra defendants do not add money. Punitive damages are not available against a governmental entity or an employee acting within the scope of employment.
Is Indiana a no-fault car insurance state?
No. Indiana is an at-fault (tort) state, so you claim against the at-fault driver's liability insurer and there is no injury threshold to clear before a pain-and-suffering claim exists. That makes the fault percentage the number the whole claim turns on.
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
- IC 34-11-2-4 (statute of limitations, 2 years) Official
- IC 34-11-6-1 (tolling for legal disabilities) Official
- IC 34-51-2-1 (Comparative Fault Act, applicability and malpractice carve-out) Official
- IC 34-51-2-2 (governmental entities and public employees excepted) Official
- IC 34-51-2-5 (effect of contributory fault) Official
- IC 34-51-2-6 (the 51 percent bar) Official
- IC 34-51-2-7 (jury instructions, single defendant) Official
- IC 34-51-2-8 (jury instructions, multiple defendants) Official
- IC 34-18-14-3 (medical-malpractice recovery limitations) Official
- IC 34-18-15 (payment from the Patient's Compensation Fund) Official
- IC 34-18-7-1 (malpractice limitation period) Official
- IC 34-18-7-3 (tolling on filing the proposed complaint) Official
- IC 34-18-8-4 (medical review panel prerequisite) Official
- IC 34-13-3-4 (government caps, punitive damages prohibited) Official
- IC 34-13-3-6 (270-day notice to the state) Official
- IC 34-13-3-8 (180-day notice to a political subdivision) Official
- IC 34-13-3-9 (incapacitated claimants) Official
- IC 34-13-3-10 (what the tort claim notice must say) Official
- IC 34-23-1-1 (wrongful death, 2 years) Official
- IC 34-23-1-2 (adult wrongful death, 300,000 dollar limit) Official
- Abbas v. Neter-Nu (Ind. 2025): the MMA applies contributory negligence Official
- Davidson v. State (Ind. 2023): government tort claims and contributory negligence Official
- Ind. Dep't of Ins. v. Everhart (Ind. 2012): how the Fund pays the excess Official
- III: background on no-fault auto insurance Academic