Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations in Connecticut

The law requires that a medical malpractice lawsuit be initiated within two years from the date when the injury is first sustained or discovered or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been discovered. The law also requires that it be initiated within three years from the date of the act or omission complained of (CGS § 52-584). (The courts typically refer to the two year period as the statute of limitation and the three year limit as the statute of repose). Thus, a person who believes he has been injured because of medical malpractice must initiate the lawsuit within three years of the act of malpractice even if he does not discover and could not have reasonably discovered the injury and its link to the alleged malpractice until more than three years have passed.

One way to get around this three year limit is if the injured person can successfully allege that the physician had a continuing duty to warn him about the malpractice and its consequence. In such a case the state Supreme Court has held that the physician's breach of his continuing duty to warn his patient of the malpractice and its consequence tolls the running of the statute of limitation and repose. This means that both the two and three year periods do not run for as long as the physician breaches his duty to warn the patient about the malpractice and its possible effects.