Police Brutality & Civil Rights
Statutes of Limitations
4 statutes with plain-language summaries, case relevance, source links, and related Michigan practice areas.
Statutes of Limitations
4 statutes"A person shall not bring or maintain an action to recover damages for assault and battery... unless, after the claim first accrued to the plaintiff or to someone through whom the plaintiff claims, the action is commenced within 3 years."Read Full Statute
Civil claims for assault and battery in Michigan must be filed within 3 years of the incident. This is the primary limitations period for lawsuits against police officers who use excessive force against civilians.
Three years sounds like significant time, but evidence disappears, witnesses forget, and body camera footage gets deleted. The sooner you contact a civil rights attorney after a use-of-force incident, the stronger your case will be.
We open files on police misconduct cases immediately and issue evidence preservation letters to departments within days of intake to capture footage and records before they are overwritten.
"A person shall not bring or maintain an action to recover damages for deprivation of civil rights under Michigan law unless the action is commenced within 3 years after the claim first accrued."Read Full Statute
State civil rights tort claims carry a 3-year statute of limitations. Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 also borrow Michigan's 3-year personal injury period, making both state and federal civil rights claims subject to the same 3-year window.
The 3-year limitations period for civil rights cases runs from the date of the constitutional violation — typically the date of the arrest, use of force, or wrongful detention.
We file both federal (§ 1983) and state civil rights claims simultaneously to preserve every available theory of recovery and maximize pressure on government defendants.
"The period of limitations runs from the time the claim accrues. The claim accrues at the time the wrong upon which the claim is based was done regardless of the time when damage results."Read Full Statute
A civil rights claim accrues when the plaintiff knows or should know of the injury and its cause. For excessive force claims, accrual is typically the date of the incident. For wrongful conviction or malicious prosecution claims, accrual may be delayed until the conviction is vacated or charges are dismissed.
In wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution cases, the limitations period may not begin until after criminal proceedings conclude, protecting clients who don't realize they have a civil claim until charges against them are resolved.
We carefully analyze the accrual date in every civil rights case — particularly in wrongful prosecution matters — to ensure claims are timely and preserved even when the constitutional violation occurred years ago.
"All other personal actions shall be commenced within 6 years after the claim first accrued or within such shorter period as the statute of limitations may provide."Read Full Statute
For civil rights or unusual tort claims not covered by a specific limitation period, Michigan provides a 6-year catch-all window. This provision can apply to novel or mixed-theory civil rights cases where the specific limitation period is disputed.
Rarely the primary limitation period in straightforward police misconduct cases, but valuable as a fallback argument in complex matters involving multiple theories of liability with different accrual dates.
We use the catch-all provision strategically when the government challenges the timeliness of claims arising from long-running patterns of police misconduct or cases with disputed accrual dates.