Washington Personal Injury Laws: Deadlines to Sue, Fault Rules and Damage Caps

Three years for any injury to the person or rights of another not otherwise listed in the limitations statutes.

Three years for taking, detaining or injuring personal property (such as a car), and three years for waste or trespass on real property.

Three years from the act or omission, or one year from when the patient discovered or reasonably should have discovered that the injury was caused by it, whichever is later, but no more than eight years after the act or omission. The time is tolled for fraud, intentional concealment, or a foreign object left in the body until the patient has actual knowledge, after which the patient has one year. For minors, a parent's or guardian's knowledge is imputed to the child.

The personal representative of the person who died brings the action, for economic and noneconomic damages suffered by the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are the spouse or state registered domestic partner and the children (including stepchildren); if there are none, the parents or siblings. The personal representative can also recover, for those beneficiaries, the person's own pain and suffering before death under the survival statute.

Pure comparative fault. An injured person's own fault reduces their damages proportionately but does not bar recovery, no matter how large their share of fault.

State: a claim must be presented to the Office of Risk Management on the standard tort claim form, and no lawsuit may be filed until 60 days after the claim is presented (the limitations period is paused during those 60 days). Local governments: a claim on the standard tort claim form must be presented to the agent appointed by the local government within the limitations period, and no lawsuit may be filed until 60 days after presentment (again, the limitations period is paused). The form asks for a description of the incident, the injury, the time and place, people involved, the amount claimed and the claimant's residence.

Strict liability statute. The owner of a dog that bites a person in a public place, or lawfully in a private place (including the owner's property), is liable for the damages, regardless of the dog's past viciousness or the owner's knowledge of it. It does not apply to the lawful use of a police dog.

Drivers must carry liability insurance (or another approved form of financial responsibility) of at least $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 for bodily injury or death of two or more people in one accident, and $10,000 for property damage.

Unless a law enforcement officer is making the report, a driver in a crash causing injury or death, or property damage to any one person of $1,000 or more (the threshold set by State Patrol rule), must make a written report within four days to the city police chief (inside a city or town) or otherwise to the county sheriff or Washington State Patrol. Separately, if no one at the scene can receive the driver's information and no officer is present, the driver must promptly report the crash to the nearest police office.

Washington does not have drivers file a separate crash report with the Department of Licensing. The driver's written report (filed with local police, the sheriff or the State Patrol within four days when required) is forwarded to the chief of the Washington State Patrol, which gives the Department of Licensing full access. Reports are made on the State Patrol's form, and the State Patrol may require supplemental reports.

A driver in a crash causing injury or death (or striking a deceased person's body) must stop immediately at or near the scene and stay until they have given their name, address, insurance company, policy number and plate number, shown their driver's license, and given reasonable help to anyone injured (including arranging transport for treatment). In a crash damaging only an attended vehicle or other property, the driver must move off the roadway to a safe nearby spot and then meet the same information duties. Leaving a crash that causes death is a class B felony; injury, a class C felony; striking a deceased person's body, a gross misdemeanor; property damage only, a gross misdemeanor. The license is revoked on conviction for failing to stop and give information or aid after a crash with an attended vehicle.

Claims for damages against any Washington local government (city, county, district) or its officers, employees or volunteers must first be presented to the agent the local government has appointed to receive claims, within the regular time limit for filing suit, on the standard tort claim form kept by the state Department of Enterprise Services. No lawsuit may be filed until 60 calendar days after the claim is presented; the statute of limitations is tolled during that 60-day period. If the local government has not complied with its duty to appoint and record an agent, it cannot raise a defense under this claim-filing law. Claims against the State are covered separately (see injury/government_claims).

Public or private landowners and others in lawful control of land or water who allow the public to use it for outdoor recreation (such as hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, bicycling, boating or winter sports) without charging a fee of any kind are not liable for unintentional injuries to those users. The protection does not apply to injuries caused by a known dangerous artificial latent condition for which warning signs have not been conspicuously posted, and the law does not change the attractive nuisance doctrine.

Washington requires everyone operating or riding a motorcycle, motor-driven cycle or moped on a state highway, county road or city street to wear a motorcycle helmet meeting federal DOT standards, with the chin strap fastened, regardless of age. Exceptions are antique motor-driven cycles and vehicles with a steering wheel, seat belts and an enclosed seating area certified to federal standards. The section read does not address the effect on damages.

Lane splitting is banned: no person may operate a motorcycle between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles, and a motorcyclist may not overtake and pass in the same lane occupied by the vehicle being passed (except a pedestrian or bicyclist, with at least three feet of clearance). Police officers on duty are exempt; no more than two motorcycles may ride abreast in one lane.

Drivers must stop and remain stopped for a pedestrian (or bicyclist) crossing within a marked or unmarked crosswalk when the person is on or within one lane of the driver's half of the roadway, and may not pass a vehicle stopped at a crosswalk for a pedestrian. Pedestrians may not suddenly step into the path of a vehicle too close to stop. A pedestrian crossing anywhere other than a marked crosswalk or an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection must yield to all vehicles; between adjacent intersections with working signals, pedestrians may cross only in a marked crosswalk, and they may not cross at an unmarked crosswalk where a sign prohibits it.

A bicyclist on a roadway has the rights and duties of a vehicle driver, and on a sidewalk or crosswalk has the rights and duties of a pedestrian. A driver passing a bicyclist in the right lane, shoulder or bike lane must, on a road with two or more lanes in that direction, move completely into the lane to the left when safe; on a road with one lane in that direction, slow down and pass at a safe distance of at least three feet where practicable, or move into the oncoming lane when safe if there is not enough room.

Washington requires a primary commercial auto policy covering a rideshare vehicle whenever the driver is logged in and whenever a passenger is aboard. Before a ride is accepted: liability of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury and $30,000 for property damage, plus underinsured motorist and personal injury protection coverage as required by state law. During a prearranged ride: a $1 million combined single limit for death, injury and property damage, plus personal injury protection; and from the time a passenger enters until the passenger exits, underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident. If the driver's policy lapses or does not cover, the company must provide the coverage from the first dollar.

The chief of the Washington State Patrol may adopt rules on which vehicles are inspected, inspection criteria, driver qualifications, hours of service and other matters for vehicle equipment and driver inspections, and must prioritize higher-risk motor carriers for inspections and compliance reviews. For interstate trucks, federal minimum insurance is set in 49 CFR 387.9.

Washington's industrial insurance law abolished civil lawsuits by injured workers against employers, replacing them with no-fault benefits 'to the exclusion of every other remedy' except as the law provides. The exceptions in the statute are an injury caused by the employer's deliberate intention to injure, and claims against a third person not in the worker's same employ (such as another contractor or equipment maker).