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

6 min read

Published April 8, 2026 • By DocketMath Team

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws change frequently — verify all citations with current official sources.

Overview

Missouri’s statute of limitations for assault and battery intentional-tort claims is 5 years under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 556.037. This is the default time limit to file a civil claim for this type of injury in Missouri when no narrower claim-specific rule applies.

Assault and battery often arise from the same event, but they are separate civil theories. In plain terms:

Assault usually means placing someone in fear of immediate harmful or offensive contact.
Battery usually means the harmful or offensive contact itself.

For limitation purposes, the main questions are when the claim accrued and whether any exception changes the filing deadline. Missouri’s general rule provides the baseline: 5 years.

Note: This page covers the Missouri civil limitations period for intentional tort claims involving assault and battery. It is not legal advice and does not replace case-specific analysis, especially where accrual date, tolling, or related proceedings may affect the deadline.

Limitation period

Missouri uses a 5-year limitations period for this category of claim. Because the jurisdiction data does not identify a separate claim-specific rule for assault or battery, the general/default period controls.

Here’s the practical breakdown:

Item	Missouri rule
Default filing deadline	5 years
Governing statute	Mo. Rev. Stat. § 556.037
Claim-specific shorter rule found?	No
How to treat the deadline in a calculator	Start with the 5-year period, then adjust for accrual and any exception

A statute of limitations answer always has two parts:

The limitations period — here, 5 years.
The accrual date — the date the clock starts running.

For an assault or battery matter, the deadline usually turns on the date the alleged conduct happened, unless a tolling rule or another exception applies. That means a claim can be timely or untimely depending on the actual filing date, not just the year of the incident.

Use this quick rule of thumb:

If the incident date is known: add 5 years to find the baseline deadline.
If the incident date is uncertain: the deadline may be harder to determine and can depend on records, amendments, or proof of accrual.
If the injury occurred over time: separate events may produce separate accrual dates.

For example, if the alleged battery occurred on June 1, 2021, the baseline filing deadline would be June 1, 2026, assuming no exception changes the result.

Key exceptions

Missouri’s provided data does not identify a special assault-and-battery carveout, so the default 5-year period is the starting point. Even so, the actual deadline can change if an exception affects when the clock starts or stops.

Common timing issues to check:

Delayed accrual: The clock may begin only when the claim accrues, not when the consequences are later discovered.
Minority or incapacity tolling: A claimant who was legally unable to sue at the time of accrual may have a different filing window.
Amended pleadings: If a lawsuit is amended to add a new party or a new claim, relation-back issues can matter.
Related criminal proceedings: A criminal case does not automatically pause a civil limitations period, so the civil deadline must still be tracked separately.
Separate incidents: Repeated acts may create multiple deadlines instead of one.

A practical checklist helps prevent mistakes:

Warning: Waiting for a criminal case to finish can be risky. A civil assault or battery claim may expire while a related criminal matter is still pending.

When people use DocketMath’s statute-of-limitations tool, these exception questions are what shift the output. A single date change can move the deadline by months or years, so the tool works best when the incident date and any tolling facts are entered carefully.

For a faster workflow, you can also open the calculator directly here: /tools/statute-of-limitations.

Statute citation

Missouri’s general statute cited for this period is Mo. Rev. Stat. § 556.037.

The provided source is:

https://law.justia.com/codes/missouri/title-xxxviii/chapter-556/section-556-037/

For reference-page use, the citation details to keep in mind are:

Citation item	Value
State	Missouri
Code	Mo. Rev. Stat.
Section	§ 556.037
Default SOL period	5 years
Applicability in this brief	General/default period for assault and battery intentional-tort claims

This page intentionally treats § 556.037 as the controlling general statute because no separate claim-type-specific sub-rule was provided in the jurisdiction data. That matters because a calculator should not guess a shorter or longer period where the state data does not support one.

Use the calculator

DocketMath’s statute-of-limitations calculator helps translate Missouri’s 5-year rule into a concrete filing deadline. The output changes based on the dates and timing facts you enter.

To get a useful result, enter:

Incident date: when the assault or battery occurred
Filing date: if you want to test whether a case is already timely
Tolling or disability facts: if a recognized exception may apply
Claim type: assault, battery, or both, if the tool asks for it

The calculator then applies the baseline Missouri period and shows whether the date falls inside or outside the limitations window.

What changes the output?

Input factor	Effect on output
Later incident date	Pushes the deadline later
Earlier filing date	Makes timeliness more likely
Tolling period	Extends the deadline
Separate incident dates	May produce multiple deadlines
Wrong accrual date	Can produce an incorrect result

Fast workflow

Open the calculator.
Enter the date of the alleged conduct.
Add any tolling facts you can verify.
Review the deadline generated from Missouri’s 5-year rule.
Compare the filing date to the output.

If you need a starting point, use the tool here: /tools/statute-of-limitations.