Statute of Limitations for Assault and Battery (intentional tort) in Mississippi

Overview

In Mississippi, the statute of limitations (SOL) for filing a lawsuit based on assault and battery as an intentional tort is generally 3 years under Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49.

For planning purposes, treat this as the default rule: if your claim is an intentional tort like assault or battery and no more specific carve-out applies, you generally have three years from the date the claim “accrues”—meaning the clock starts when the facts giving rise to the claim occurred and the claim is legally actionable.

Limitation period

Mississippi’s general civil SOL for many actions is 3 years. The controlling provision for the general/default period is Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49.

What “3 years” means in practice

A practical way to think about the timing is:

• Start date (accrual): the date your assault/battery claim is deemed to accrue under Mississippi law based on the specific case facts.
• End date (deadline): the last day to file, calculated by adding 3 years to the accrual date, subject to any applicable tolling or special accrual rules.

Here’s an illustrative timeline (for example only):

How inputs change outputs in DocketMath

When you use DocketMath (statute-of-limitations), your key input is typically:

• Accrual date (the date you believe the claim became actionable)

Changing this date changes the computed deadline:

• Later accrual date → later SOL deadline
• Earlier accrual date → earlier SOL deadline

Because SOL timing can be sensitive to exact dates, it’s usually worth double-checking what you treat as the accrual date before relying on the output.

Key exceptions

Mississippi’s general/default SOL of 3 years applies when no more specific rule or tolling doctrine changes the timing. Still, there are several practical categories to check.

1) Tolling (pauses or extends the clock)

Some legal circumstances can pause or extend the SOL. Whether tolling applies depends on the facts and the legal basis. If tolling is available in your situation, your deadline may move later than the basic “accrual + 3 years” calculation.

2) Accrual rules may differ from “date of incident”

Even if the assault/battery happened on a known day, the case may turn on when the claim accrued—i.e., when it became legally actionable. In some contexts, accrual can involve issues such as:

• when the harm was or should have been actionable under the legal framework,
• whether the claim could be brought at that time, and
• other fact-specific timing questions.

DocketMath can help you compute a deadline once you decide on an accrual date, but it cannot determine accrual by itself.

3) Claim classification / how the case is framed

Your lawsuit’s legal theory can matter. You’re planning around assault and battery as an intentional tort, so the general/default 3-year rule is the baseline. But if a complaint is framed under a different theory (with a different limitations period), the deadline could differ from the general/default approach.

Pitfall: Filing “about three years later” can still be late if the court concludes the claim accrued earlier or if a tolling doctrine does not apply.

What we did—and did not—find for this page

For this specific topic, a claim-type-specific sub-rule was not found in the provided jurisdiction data. That means the safest way to use this page is as a default timing guide under Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49 for assault and battery intentional tort claims, unless a recognized exception, tolling, or accrual nuance applies.

Statute citation

The general/default statute of limitations period is:

• **Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49 — 3 years (general SOL period)

Use this as the anchor for computing the deadline when no more specific rule displaces it.

Use the calculator

Use DocketMath to compute the deadline date from your chosen accrual date.

Primary CTA: **/tools/statute-of-limitations

You can also access it directly from here: /tools/statute-of-limitations before you finalize a deadline.

Suggested steps

1. Identify your accrual date (the date you believe the claim became actionable).
2. Enter that date into DocketMath (statute-of-limitations).
3. Review the computed SOL deadline and plan your work accordingly (drafting, filing, service, and any internal review timelines).

How to interpret the output

DocketMath will generally return a computed SOL deadline based on the applicable limitations period (here, 3 years under Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49). If you adjust your accrual date, the deadline updates accordingly.

Practical workflow tip: if your deadline is close, consider building a buffer for filing steps rather than treating the last day as the target.

Sources and references

Start with the primary authority for Mississippi and confirm the effective date before relying on any output. If the rule has been amended, update the inputs and rerun the calculation.

• Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49

Related reading

• Choosing the right statute of limitations tool for Vermont — How to choose the right calculator
• Statute of limitations in Singapore: how to estimate the deadline — Full how-to guide with jurisdiction-specific rules
• Choosing the right statute of limitations tool for Connecticut — How to choose the right calculator