You generally have 1 year 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 Tennessee. Add your crash date and four answers.
In Tennessee, the deadline to file a truck accident personal injury lawsuit is generally 1 year from the date of the crash (Tenn. Code § 28-3-104(a)(1)). Wrongful death is 1 year from the date of death (Tenn. Code § 28-3-104). If a government vehicle was involved, written notice is generally required within 1 year.
Tennessee gives one year — among the shortest deadlines in the country — and in a truck case the evidence clock and the legal clock nearly converge.
Everywhere else this tool shows a wide gap between years and months. In Tennessee the filing deadline is twelve months and the driver logs are gone at six. There is no comfortable margin anywhere in the timeline.
I-40 across the state, I-24, I-65 and I-75 converging on Nashville, Memphis as a national air and ground freight hub, and Chattanooga's interstate junction.
Watch out for this one: The criminal-charge extension. If the driver was charged, the period may be two years rather than one — but nobody should plan around a possibility that depends on a prosecutor's decision.
| Jurisdiction | Injury claim | Wrongful death | Government notice | Driver logs kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year | 180 days |
Runs from the date of the crash. Cited: Tenn. Code § 28-3-104(a)(1) (Tennessee Code Annotated).
IMPORTANT: Tennessee's one-year period is among the shortest in the country. It is commonly extended to TWO years where criminal charges are brought against the driver arising from the same incident — Tenn. Code § 28-3-104(a)(2). Whether that extension applies is a fact question about the prosecution, not something this tool can determine.
Runs from the date of death. Cited: Tenn. Code § 28-3-104.
Subject to the same possible two-year extension where criminal charges are filed.
Claims against the State are generally filed with the Division of Claims and Risk Management within the limitation period. Cited: Tenn. Code § 9-8-402 (Division of Claims and Risk Management).
Tennessee's government deadline is twelve months, which matches its ordinary one-year period rather than shortening it.
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).
The limitation period generally does not begin to run until the injured person turns 18. The full period then runs from the 18th birthday. Cited: Tenn. Code § 28-1-106.
Generally tolled during minority.
Tennessee applies a discovery rule where the injury or its cause was not reasonably discoverable.
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 Tennessee the deadline to file a truck accident personal injury lawsuit is generally 1 year from the date of the crash, under Tenn. Code § 28-3-104(a)(1). 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.
Tennessee sets the wrongful death period at 1 year, measured from the date of death, under Tenn. Code § 28-3-104.
That matches the personal injury period in this state, but the starting point can still differ.
Subject to the same possible two-year extension where criminal charges are filed.
A much shorter deadline usually applies. In Tennessee the shortest government notice window is 1 year from the crash.
Claims against the State are generally filed with the Division of Claims and Risk Management within the limitation period.
Tennessee's government deadline is twelve months, which matches its ordinary one-year period rather than shortening it.
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.
The limitation period generally does not begin to run until the injured person turns 18. The full period then runs from the 18th birthday. In Tennessee this is governed by Tenn. Code § 28-1-106.
Generally tolled during minority.
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 Tennessee 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 Tennessee. 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.