You generally have 3 years from the date of the crash to file. The trucking company only has to keep the driver's logs for six months. Both clocks started the day of the collision.
Already set to Michigan. Add your crash date and four answers.
In Michigan, the deadline to file a truck accident personal injury lawsuit is generally 3 years from the date of the crash (MCL § 600.5805(2)). Wrongful death is 3 years from the date of death (MCL § 600.5805; § 600.2922). If a government vehicle was involved, written notice is generally required within 120 days.
Michigan's minority tolling is far less generous than most people assume. Rather than restarting the full period at eighteen, the state commonly gives one year after the disability is removed.
A family that assumes a child's claim can wait until adulthood and then take the usual three years may find they had twelve months. It is one of the most consequential differences in the dataset.
I-94 and I-75 through Detroit, the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit–Windsor Tunnel crossings into Canada, and I-96 and I-69 carrying automotive supply-chain freight.
Watch out for this one: Cross-border carriers. A Canadian-domiciled carrier adds a jurisdictional layer and makes early preservation demands more important, not less.
| Jurisdiction | Injury claim | Wrongful death | Government notice | Driver logs kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 3 years | 3 years | 120 days | 180 days |
Runs from the date of the crash. Cited: MCL § 600.5805(2) (Michigan Compiled Laws).
Michigan's no-fault system separately limits the time to claim personal injury protection benefits — commonly one year — which is a different and much shorter clock from the three-year period to sue in tort.
Runs from the date of death. Cited: MCL § 600.5805; § 600.2922.
Michigan runs two clocks and which one applies depends on who owned the vehicle:
Michigan has several overlapping short notice provisions depending on which governmental entity and which theory. This is a state where the notice analysis genuinely needs a lawyer.
A federal vehicle is not on this clock at all. A USPS truck, a VA vehicle or another federal agency vehicle runs under the Federal Tort Claims Act — an administrative claim on Standard Form 95 within two years of the crash, then six months to sue after it is denied (28 U.S.C. § 2401(b); 28 C.F.R. § 14.2).
Tolling applies during minority, but the injured person generally gets a fixed, shorter window after turning 18 rather than the full limitation period. Cited: MCL § 600.5851.
Michigan commonly gives a person under disability a one-year window after the disability is removed, rather than the full period from the 18th birthday. This is materially less generous than the majority rule.
Applied in defined circumstances; ordinary crash claims generally accrue at the collision.
Almost everything that proves what a truck driver was doing before a crash is held by the trucking company, and almost all of it is on a clock that has nothing to do with your right to sue.
Driver logs. Federal law requires a motor carrier to keep a driver's record of duty status — the hours-of-service record — for 6 months. After that, destroying it is lawful. That record is how you find out whether the driver had been at the wheel for eleven hours or for sixteen.
Camera footage. Forward-facing and driver-facing video usually sits on a rolling loop. Thirty days is common. Some fleets keep a week. Unless somebody asks for it, the file that shows the truck drifting across the line is overwritten by ordinary operation.
Engine data. The engine control module records speed, throttle and braking in the seconds before impact. There is no retention rule at all. It goes when the tractor is repaired, when the module is re-flashed, when the truck is sold, or when it simply goes back into service.
None of this is a conspiracy. It is a filing cabinet being emptied on schedule. But it produces a situation that almost nobody warns people about: in a state that gives you three years to file, you can be two years and nine months inside your legal deadline and have nothing left to prove your case with.
There is one thing that stops it. A preservation letter — a spoliation letter — sent to the carrier and its insurer puts them on notice that specific categories of evidence are relevant to a claim. Once that letter lands, destroying the material stops being routine and starts being a problem for them. Until it lands, the clocks keep running.
In order. The first two matter most, and the second one is the one almost nobody does in time.
You are not required to. What you say while you are still in pain and still learning the extent of your injuries can be used later to reduce or defeat the claim.
A preservation letter to the carrier and its insurer stops the retention clocks from mattering. This is the most time-sensitive step on the list.
Once the tractor is repaired or returned to service, the engine module data and the physical condition of the brakes and tyres are generally gone.
It carries the carrier name, the USDOT number and the insurer — the details a preservation letter needs in order to reach the right company.
Bruising, swelling and surgical sites change within days. That progression cannot be recreated later.
Weather, the position of the truck, what you heard, who stopped, what was said. A contemporaneous note carries weight a later recollection does not.
Including the ones that seem trivial. Gaps in treatment are the most common argument used to reduce a claim.
A crash near a state line can raise a genuine question about which state's deadline applies — the rules can differ by years.
In Michigan the deadline to file a truck accident personal injury lawsuit is generally 3 years from the date of the crash, under MCL § 600.5805(2). A claim filed after that is normally barred, however strong it is.
That is the legal deadline only. The evidence held by the trucking company runs on a separate federal clock — six months for driver logs, often thirty days or less for camera footage.
Michigan sets the wrongful death period at 3 years, measured from the date of death, under MCL § 600.5805; § 600.2922.
That matches the personal injury period in this state, but the starting point can still differ.
A much shorter deadline usually applies. In Michigan the shortest government notice window is 120 days from the crash.
The clocks are not the same for every entity:
Michigan has several overlapping short notice provisions depending on which governmental entity and which theory. This is a state where the notice analysis genuinely needs a lawyer.
A federal vehicle — a USPS truck, a VA vehicle — is different again. Those run under the Federal Tort Claims Act: an administrative claim on Standard Form 95 within two years, then six months to sue after denial.
Tolling applies during minority, but the injured person generally gets a fixed, shorter window after turning 18 rather than the full limitation period. In Michigan this is governed by MCL § 600.5851.
Michigan commonly gives a person under disability a one-year window after the disability is removed, rather than the full period from the 18th birthday. This is materially less generous than the majority rule.
Tolling extends the legal deadline and does nothing for the evidence. The driver logs are destroyed on the ordinary six-month federal schedule whether the injured person is eight or eighty.
Six months, under 49 C.F.R. § 395.8(k)(1). That is federal and does not vary by state, so it is the same in Michigan as anywhere else.
Camera footage is usually on a shorter cycle still — often thirty days or less. Engine module data has no retention requirement at all and is commonly lost when the tractor is repaired or returned to service.
The figures on this page are the general rule in Michigan. They are not advice, and they do not know the facts of your case — who owned the trailer, whether a broker was involved, whether the driver was an employee or an owner-operator, whether any of that changes which deadline applies to which party.
A free case review answers that, and it starts the preservation letter, which is the only thing on this page that actually stops a clock.
Free, and no fee unless you win. You can send this at any hour; a callback goes out within permitted calling hours. Using this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.