Filing an Injury Claim in Arizona: A State With No Damage Caps and One Brutal Deadline

Arizona is one of the only states whose constitution flatly forbids the legislature from capping what an injured person can recover — and, at the same time, a state where one missed paperwork deadline, sometimes just 180 days long, can end a claim no matter how strong the evidence is. Both facts should shape how you approach filing.

The constitution takes damage caps off the table

Many states have passed tort-reform laws limiting compensation for pain, suffering, and other non-economic harm, especially in medical malpractice cases. Arizona generally cannot, at least not by ordinary legislation. Article 2, Section 31 of the Arizona Constitution prohibits laws that limit the damages recoverable for injury or death, and Arizona is widely cited as one of only a handful of states with that kind of constitutional protection.

Practically, that means there is generally no statutory ceiling on an Arizona injury verdict — not for car accidents, not for medical malpractice, not for wrongful death. The value of a claim is driven by the evidence: the severity of the injury, the medical records, the impact on work and daily life, and ultimately what a jury finds reasonable. If you are trying to understand what actually moves that number, our overview of what drives the value of an injury claim walks through the factors insurers and juries weigh.

One caution: no cap does not mean no fight. It simply means the ceiling is set by proof rather than by statute, which makes documentation and credible medical evidence matter even more here than in capped states.

Being mostly at fault does not bar you

Arizona follows pure comparative negligence under A.R.S. 12-2505. In plain terms: your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, but it is generally not eliminated — even if your share of the blame is larger than the other side’s. A person found 90% responsible can, in principle, still recover the remaining 10% of their damages. That is a meaningfully more forgiving rule than the “50% bar” systems used in much of the country, where crossing a fault threshold ends the claim entirely.

There is an exception worth knowing: the statute generally denies comparative-fault recovery to a claimant who intentionally, wilfully, or wantonly caused or contributed to their own injury. Ordinary carelessness — speeding a little, misjudging a gap, missing a wet-floor sign — is not that.

The practical takeaway is the same one we give in every comparative-fault state, only stronger here: do not decide on your own that the accident was too much your fault to pursue. In Arizona, that conclusion is almost never legally correct, and an adjuster’s early opinion about your percentage of blame is a negotiating position, not a finding.

The standard clock: two years

For most personal injury lawsuits against private parties, Arizona generally allows two years from the date the cause of action accrues under A.R.S. 12-542. Two years sounds like plenty of time. It rarely feels that way once treatment, insurance correspondence, and daily life take over — and evidence gets weaker while you wait.

There are exceptions in both directions. The clock is generally paused for minors until age 18, and courts apply accrual rules that can matter when an injury was not immediately discoverable. None of these are safe to assume in your own case without advice from a licensed Arizona attorney. For a compact summary of the deadlines and fault rules side by side, see our Arizona quick-reference page.

The 180-day trap: claims involving the government

Here is the deadline that catches people. If the responsible party is a public entity or public employee — a city vehicle, a state-maintained road, a county agency, a public school district — Arizona law generally requires a formal notice of claim within 180 days of the injury under A.R.S. 12-821.01. This is not a courtesy letter. The notice must set out the facts supporting the claim and include a specific amount for which the claim can be settled, and Arizona courts have enforced the requirements strictly.

Miss the 180-day window and the claim is generally barred entirely — even though the ordinary two-year statute has barely started running. And the lawsuit itself runs on a shorter clock too: actions against public entities generally must be filed within one year under A.R.S. 12-821. If the entity does not respond to a proper notice within 60 days, the claim is generally deemed denied.

This matters more often than people expect. Crashes at intersections with disputed signal timing, collisions with government fleet vehicles, injuries on public property, and roadway design or maintenance questions can all pull a public entity into the case. Whether a government defendant is involved is one of the first things worth figuring out after an Arizona injury — because it compresses every deadline that follows.

Arizona is an at-fault auto state

Arizona uses a traditional at-fault (tort) system for car accidents, not no-fault insurance. There is no PIP requirement and no injury threshold to meet before bringing a liability claim: the driver who caused the crash, through their insurer, is generally responsible for the harm. That keeps the focus on evidence of fault from day one — photographs, witness contacts, the police report — because your percentage of blame directly scales your recovery under the comparative-fault rule above.

Arizona’s required minimum liability coverage is modest relative to what serious injuries cost, so claims here often involve questions about underinsured-motorist coverage on your own policy. It is worth checking what you carry before you need it.

A jury quirk found nowhere else first

One more Arizona distinctive: effective January 1, 2022, Arizona became the first state to eliminate peremptory strikes in jury selection — the traditional practice of each side removing a limited number of jurors without stating a reason. In Arizona civil trials, jurors are now removed only for cause. Lawyers still debate what this means for injury cases, but it is a genuine difference in how an Arizona trial is built compared with every neighboring state, and one more reason experience in Arizona courtrooms specifically matters.

Putting it together

• Assume two deadlines, not one. The general two-year rule, and the much shorter 180-day and one-year government clocks if any public entity might be involved.
• Do not self-assess fault. Arizona’s pure comparative rule means partial — even majority — blame does not end a claim.
• Build the record early. With no damage caps, the evidence is the ceiling. Medical documentation, photographs, and witness information do the heavy lifting.
• Confirm the specifics. Everything here is the general rule as of 2026; exceptions exist, and a licensed Arizona attorney should confirm how they apply to your facts.

If you were injured in Arizona and want to know whether you may have a claim — and whether a government deadline is already running — answer a few questions about what happened and we will connect you with a participating Arizona law firm that can evaluate it. Free, confidential, and no obligation.