Statute of Limitations in Ohio in Cincinnati, OH Every Clock That Can Expire

Two years for bodily injury

Under section 2305.10(A), a product liability claim and an action for bodily injury or for injuring personal property must both be brought inside two years of accrual, and accrual is defined by the occurrence of the injury or loss rather than by its discovery. Crash, premises, dog bite and general negligence claims live here.

The section adds separate accrual rules for exposure cases, including claims from exposure to hazardous or toxic chemicals, ethical drugs or devices, and specified substances, where the cause of action accrues when the plaintiff is informed by competent medical authority of an injury from the exposure or when by exercise of reasonable diligence the plaintiff should have known.

One year for a medical claim, plus a letter

Section 2305.113(A) gives one year after the cause of action accrues for a medical, dental, optometric or chiropractic claim. Division (B)(1) allows an extension: if prior to the expiration of that year a claimant gives the person who is the subject of the claim written notice that the claimant is considering bringing an action, the action may be commenced within one hundred eighty days after the notice is given. Division (B)(2) requires that notice to be given by certified mail, return receipt requested, before the one-year period expires.

Division (C)(1) adds an outer limit that discovery does not move: no action may be commenced more than four years after the act or omission constituting the alleged basis of the claim. Divisions (D)(1) and (D)(2) create narrow exceptions — one year from discovery where the injury could not reasonably have been discovered within three years, and one year for a claim based on a foreign object left in the body.

Two years from death for wrongful death

Chapter 2125 sets its own period. Under section 2125.02(F)(1), the two years for a wrongful death action are measured from the decedent's death rather than from the negligence that led to it, and the clock does not wait for a personal representative to be appointed. That is why the probate steps and the civil deadline are tracked on separate calendars.

Four years, and the claims people forget

Section 2305.09 gives four years for several categories: trespass upon real property; the recovery of personal property or for taking or detaining it; relief on the ground of fraud, other than a violation of section 2913.49, which carries five years; injury to the rights of the plaintiff not arising on contract and not enumerated in sections 2305.10 to 2305.12, 2305.14 and 1304.35; and a taking of a right to compensation under Section 19 of Article I of the Ohio Constitution. The section also states that a cause of action for fraud or conversion accrues when the fraud or conversion and the wrongdoer are discovered.

Shorter and harder deadlines

Suits against a city, county, township, school district or other political subdivision have their own period. Section 2744.04(A) allows two years from accrual, subject to any shorter period the Revised Code provides elsewhere, and says so for original actions, cross-claims, counterclaims, third-party claims and subrogation claims alike.

For workers' compensation, section 4123.84(A) bars claims for compensation or benefits forever unless, within one year after the injury or death, written notice of the specific parts of the body claimed to be injured and the manner of injury is filed with the Industrial Commission or the Bureau. To appeal a commission order to common pleas, section 4123.512(A) allows sixty days after receipt of the order.

Repose periods, which are not limitations periods

Two Ohio statutes cut off claims by reference to a date unrelated to the injury. Section 2305.131(A)(1) bars a claim against a designer, planner, construction supervisor or builder of an improvement to real property more than ten years after substantial completion, with a two-year discovery window under division (A)(2) for defects found in the final two years, an exemption in division (B) for anyone in actual possession and control, and an exception in division (C) for fraudulent concealment. Section 2305.113(C)(1) does the same for medical claims at four years.

A repose period can expire before anyone knows they were hurt. That is the design, and it is the reason dates of construction, delivery and treatment are gathered early rather than after a theory is chosen.

Tolling for minority and unsound mind

Section 2305.16 addresses disability at accrual. Where the person who could sue was, when the claim arose, still within the age of minority or of unsound mind, the action may instead be brought after that disability has been removed. Section 2744.04(A) states expressly that its two-year period is tolled under section 2305.16.

That is a significant feature in claims involving children, and it is not a reason to delay gathering evidence: the deadline may be long while the surveillance video, maintenance log or vehicle is not.

Practical consequences

A single incident can carry several clocks at once — a two-year injury claim against a driver, a one-year medical claim against a treating provider, a one-year compensation filing, and a shorter notice obligation against a public entity. Missing the shortest one usually eliminates that defendant permanently, whatever the merits.

This page is a general summary of Ohio limitation and repose statutes and is not legal advice. The dates that control a specific claim should be confirmed with an attorney licensed in Ohio well before any deadline approaches.