Truck Accident Statute of Limitations in Mississippi (2026)

Your deadlines in Mississippi, calculated

Enter the date of your crash and the tool below will work out both clocks — the legal filing deadline and the much shorter window before the proof can be destroyed. Mississippi is already selected. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

What makes Mississippi different

Mississippi's 90-day Tort Claims Act notice is among the shortest in the country, and the MTCA limitations period is one year rather than the ordinary three. A crash involving a state, county, municipal or school district vehicle in Mississippi therefore runs on roughly a third of the normal timeline, with a three-month notice on the front of it.

The four Mississippi deadlines that matter

On the wrongful death period: The applicable period follows the underlying wrong, so it is not always three years.

Claims against a government entity in Mississippi

The shortest government notice window found for Mississippi — 90 days (Miss. Code § 11-46-11). This is the deadline that quietly ends claims: it comes due long before the ordinary filing deadline, it is a precondition to suing rather than a suggestion, and missing it usually bars the claim entirely no matter how strong the case is.

Mississippi Tort Claims Act notice of claim within 90 days, and the MTCA limitations period is one year — a third of the ordinary period. Same 90-day notice for counties, municipalities and school districts.

Public fleets you could realistically be hit by in Mississippi: MDOT maintenance trucks, county road department equipment, municipal fleets in Jackson and the Coast cities, and school district buses. If you are not certain whether the vehicle that hit you was one of these, work to the shorter deadline until somebody confirms otherwise. The downside is not symmetrical.

If the injured person was a minor

Tolled during minority in Mississippi under Miss. Code § 15-1-59 — the clock generally does not start until the injured person turns 21. Mississippi's savings statute for minors is generous, but the MTCA notice period is treated very differently.

That pause applies to the court deadline. It does not apply to the evidence. A carrier is entitled to destroy a driver's logs six months after the crash whether the injured person is 8 or 38, and in many states a government notice deadline is not tolled for a child either. A tolled filing deadline and an untouched evidence deadline is the most dangerous combination on this page.

When the Mississippi clock starts

Applies to latent injury. § 15-1-49(2) applies a discovery rule to latent injury or disease.

Why the evidence clock in Mississippi is much shorter

Mississippi's filing deadline is 3 years. The federal retention rules that govern the trucking company are measured in weeks and months:

• Dashcam and telematics video — often 30 days or less. No federal retention requirement — vendor and carrier policy only.
• ECM / black box data — overwritten as the tractor keeps running, and routinely lost when it is repaired or resold.
• Driver logs and records of duty status — six months (49 CFR § 395.8(k)(1)).
• Maintenance and repair records — one year while the vehicle is in the carrier's control (49 CFR § 396.3(c)).
• Annual inspection report — 14 months (49 CFR § 396.21(b)(1)).

The way to stop those clocks is a preservation letter to the carrier — a written demand that specific evidence be kept. Until it arrives, destroying records at the end of a retention period is routine and lawful. Our FMCSA regulations and evidence guide explains what each of these records contains.

Truck traffic in Mississippi

Mississippi carries Gulf port freight, timber and agricultural haulage, and heavy through-traffic on I-20 and I-55. The Delta's two-lane highways mix farm equipment with long-haul tractor-trailers.

The corridors where these crashes concentrate: I-55 (Jackson–Memphis), I-20 (Vicksburg–Jackson–Meridian), I-10 along the Gulf Coast, I-59 toward Alabama and US-49 and US-61 through the Delta.

Neighbouring states have different clocks

A crash a few miles across a state line can be governed by a completely different deadline. If you are not certain which state your crash happened in — near a border, on a bridge, or on an interstate you were travelling at speed — check both.

Or use the filing deadline calculator to compare any state, and the full state index for all 50 states and D.C.

What to do next in Mississippi

1. Get a preservation letter to the carrier. This is the most time-critical step and the one almost nobody hears about.
2. Confirm whether a government entity was involved. That answer can replace your 3 years deadline with a far shorter notice window — 90 days.
3. Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company's insurer.
4. Request the Mississippi crash report, which identifies the carrier, the DOT number and the insurer.
5. Have a lawyer licensed in Mississippi confirm the dates above against the current statute.