How Long They Can Sue You
ORC 2305.06 — six years, four years, and the payment that starts it over
A limitations period is a deadline on filing a lawsuit, counted from when the claim accrued. Ohio shortened two of the ones that matter most to ordinary debt, and the amendment took effect in June of 2021.
Who handles this in Ohio: legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
| The claim | The period | Section |
|---|---|---|
| The claimA contract in writing | The periodSix years from accrual | SectionORC 2305.06 |
| The claimA contract not in writing | The periodFour years from accrual | SectionORC 2305.07 |
| The claimA note, from its due date | The periodSix years | SectionORC 1303.16 |
| The claimBodily injury, or injuring personal property, from when the injury or loss occurs | The periodTwo years | SectionORC 2305.10 |
A payment starts the period over. So does a signed writing. This is the provision that catches people, and it is a separate section from the periods themselves. Where a payment has been made on a demand founded on a contract, or a written acknowledgment of it, or a promise to pay it has been made and signed by the party to be charged, the action may be brought within the period in 2305.06 or 2305.07 counted from that payment, acknowledgment or promise. A single small payment on a very old account can put a fresh period on the clock.
The courts have read the writing half of that narrowly. An acknowledgment or promise that is going to remove the bar has to be in writing and has to amount to an express promise to pay, clear, certain and unconditional. The payment half has no such requirement, which is why the payment is the one that surprises people.
The period running out does not stop anyone filing. A limitations period is a defense. It does not erase the debt, it does not stop a collector filing a case, and no clerk checks the date at the counter. Where it applies it has to be raised in the case, by the person being sued, in their answer. A case that is never answered becomes a default judgment regardless of how old the debt was.
Accrual is doing quiet work in all of this. The period runs from when the cause of action accrued, not from the date of the original agreement and not from the last time anybody thought about it. When a particular account accrued is a question of fact, and it is frequently the disputed one.
The amendment that shortened these periods carried its own transition for claims that had already accrued when it took effect, and this page does not compute that transition for any particular debt. Other claims have their own periods in their own sections, and the ones here do not cover them. Nothing on this page says whether a specific debt is inside or outside its period, which turns on accrual, on payment history and on what has been signed. That is a question for a licensed Ohio attorney, and legal aid organizations in Ohio handle consumer debt cases.
Sources for this section (5)
- ORC 2305.06 — Six years on a written contract
- ORC 2305.07 — Four years on a contract not in writing
- ORC 2305.08 — How a payment or a signed writing restarts the clock
- ORC 2305.10 — Two year limit on a bodily injury action, which is the limit borrowed for a federal civil rights claim
- ORC 1303.16 — Six years on a note, from the due date
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.