Nevada's master list of civil deadlines is NRS 11.190, which organizes claims by period — 6, 4, 3, 2 or 1 years. Criminal charging deadlines run from NRS 171.080 (offenses with no time limit) through NRS 171.100. Every row below states the period the cited section provides, in the section's own terms, and links to the full statute text.
Civil deadlines (NRS Chapter 11 and related sections)
NRS 11.190 opens with a caveat that matters: its periods apply "unless further limited by specific statute." Some claim types — medical malpractice among them — have their own limitation sections outside the master list, and the cited section for each row is the one that actually states the period.
| Claim the statute describes | Period the statute provides | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Contract, obligation or liability founded upon an instrument in writing | 6 years | NRS 11.190(1)(b) |
| Judgment or decree of any court of the United States or of any state, or its renewal | 6 years | NRS 11.190(1)(a) |
| Contract, obligation or liability not founded upon an instrument in writing (an oral contract) | 4 years | NRS 11.190(2)(c) |
| Open account for goods, wares and merchandise sold and delivered | 4 years | NRS 11.190(2)(a) |
| Deceptive trade practices (NRS 598.0903–598.0999) | 4 years, accruing when the aggrieved party discovers, or with due diligence should have discovered, the facts | NRS 11.190(2)(d) |
| Liability created by statute, other than a penalty or forfeiture | 3 years | NRS 11.190(3)(a) |
| Waste or trespass of real property (damage to real property) | 3 years | NRS 11.190(3)(b) |
| Taking, detaining or injuring personal property, including actions for its specific recovery | 3 years | NRS 11.190(3)(c) |
| Relief on the ground of fraud or mistake | 3 years, accruing upon discovery of the facts constituting the fraud or mistake | NRS 11.190(3)(d) |
| Personal injury — injuries to a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another | 2 years | NRS 11.190(4)(e) |
| Wrongful death — the death of a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another | 2 years | NRS 11.190(4)(e) |
| Libel, slander, assault, battery, false imprisonment or seduction | 2 years | NRS 11.190(4)(c) |
| Medical malpractice — injury or death against a provider of health care (injury on or after Oct. 1, 2023) | 3 years after the date of injury or 2 years after discovery, whichever occurs first (for injuries from Oct. 1, 2002 through Sept. 30, 2023, the discovery period is 1 year) | NRS 41A.097 |
| Malpractice by an attorney or a veterinarian | 4 years after the plaintiff sustains damage or 2 years after discovery of the material facts, whichever occurs earlier | NRS 11.207(1) |
| Civil action for sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a person who was under 18 | May be commenced at any time — no limitation period | NRS 11.215(1) |
| Civil action for sexual assault of a person who was 18 or older | May be commenced at any time — no limitation period | NRS 11.217(1) |
Criminal charging deadlines (NRS Chapter 171)
On the criminal side, the period runs from commission of the offense to the finding of an indictment or the filing of an information or complaint — NRS 171.100 provides that an indictment is "found" when it is presented by the grand jury in open court and filed. The Legislature has amended these sections repeatedly, especially for sexual offenses, so the current official text differs from many older summaries circulating on the web. The same standing note applies: each row states what the statute provides, not how it applies to any particular prosecution.
| Offense the statute describes | Period the statute provides | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Murder, or a sexual assault arising out of the same facts and circumstances as a murder | No limitation — a prosecution may be commenced at any time | NRS 171.080(1) |
| Acts of terrorism (violation of NRS 202.445) | No limitation — a prosecution may be commenced at any time | NRS 171.080(2) |
| Sexual assault | 20 years; no limitation if a DNA profile establishes the identity of the accused, or if a written report was filed with a law enforcement officer during the period | NRS 171.085(2) ; NRS 171.082 ; NRS 171.083 |
| Sexual abuse or sex trafficking of a child | Before the victim is 36 years old — or 43, if the victim did not and reasonably should not have discovered the abuse or trafficking by age 36; no limitation if a written report was filed during the period | NRS 171.095(1)(b) ; NRS 171.083 |
| Sex trafficking | 6 years; no limitation if a written report was filed with a law enforcement officer during the period | NRS 171.085(3) ; NRS 171.083 |
| Theft, robbery, burglary, forgery or arson (plus certain securities- and fraud-related felonies the section lists) | 4 years after commission of the offense | NRS 171.085(1) |
| Any other felony | 3 years after commission of the offense | NRS 171.085(4) |
| Kidnapping or attempted murder, when a written report was filed with a law enforcement officer during the period | The otherwise-applicable period is extended by 5 years | NRS 171.084 ; NRS 171.085 |
| Gross misdemeanor | 2 years after commission of the offense | NRS 171.090(1) |
| Misdemeanor | 1 year after commission of the offense | NRS 171.090(2) |
| Any offense committed in a secret manner | The usual period for the offense, but running from discovery of the offense rather than commission | NRS 171.095(1)(a) |
When the clock starts
For civil cases, NRS 11.010 provides that actions may only be commenced within the prescribed periods "after the cause of action shall have accrued." For most claims the statutes do not define the accrual moment, but several name a discovery rule expressly: fraud and mistake claims accrue "upon the discovery by the aggrieved party of the facts constituting the fraud or mistake" (NRS 11.190(3)(d)), deceptive-trade claims accrue on discovery of the practice (NRS 11.190(2)(d)), and the attorney-malpractice and medical-malpractice sections each pair an outer deadline measured from the damage or injury with a shorter one measured from discovery.
For debts and contract balances, NRS 11.200 counts the time "from the last transaction or the last item charged or last credit given," and restarts the period when a payment is made on an existing contract after it comes due. It also states the reverse rule: once the period in NRS 11.190 has expired, a later payment on or affirmation of the debt "does not revive the applicable limitation."
On the criminal side, the periods in NRS 171.085 and NRS 171.090 run from commission of the offense — except that for an offense "committed in a secret manner," NRS 171.095(1)(a) runs the same periods from discovery of the offense instead.
Tolling: when the statutes pause the clock
Chapter 11 names several circumstances that stop its periods from running. Under NRS 11.250, if the person entitled to bring the action is under 18, "insane," or in the custodial care of the State (having entered it as a minor) when the claim accrues, the time of that disability "shall not be a part of the time limited for the commencement of the action." Under NRS 11.300, a defendant's absence from Nevada does not count toward the period. Concealment tolls the malpractice statutes by their own terms: NRS 11.207(2) for attorneys and veterinarians, and NRS 41A.097 for providers of health care. Chapter 11 contains further suspension rules — for example NRS 11.310 (death of a party) and NRS 11.350 (actions stayed by injunction) — so the full chapter is the reference, not this summary.
The criminal chapter has its own version: under NRS 171.083(3), any period during which a victim of sexual assault or sex trafficking is under a disability the section defines — insane, intellectually disabled, mentally incompetent, or in a medically comatose or vegetative state — is excluded from the calculation.
Why a table cannot decide a specific case
Matching a real dispute to a row involves legal judgments the statutes leave open: whether a claim is "founded upon an instrument in writing" or not, which of several overlapping sections is the "specific statute" that controls, when the claim accrued, and whether any tolling rule applied during the period. Two disputes that sound alike can fall under different rows — or under a statute this page does not list at all. That is why this page describes what the statutes provide and stops there; whether a particular claim or charge is timely is a question for a licensed Nevada attorney, as the disclaimer on every page of this site says.
These deadlines change — currency of this page
The Nevada Legislature amends limitation statutes regularly. The history line of NRS 11.190 shows amendments as recently as 2025, and the medical-malpractice discovery period in NRS 41A.097 changed for injuries occurring on or after October 1, 2023. The tables above were checked against the official text of NRS Chapters 11 and 171 as published by the Nevada Legislature and retrieved on July 16, 2026; NRS 41A.097 was checked against the live official page the same day. For anything after that date, the official text linked in each row controls.