Overview

Tennessee uses a 1-year statute of limitations for assault and battery claims treated as intentional torts under the general rule tied to Tennessee Code Annotated § 40-35-111(e)(2). There is no claim-type-specific sub-rule identified here, so the default period is the controlling benchmark for this reference page.

For anyone tracking a civil filing deadline, that means the clock is usually short. If the claim is not filed within the applicable 1-year window, the court can dismiss it as time-barred.

Assault and battery are often discussed together, but they are not identical. In practical terms:

• Assault usually concerns an intentional act creating apprehension of harmful or offensive contact.
• Battery usually concerns the harmful or offensive contact itself.

For deadline purposes in Tennessee, the key takeaway is the same: the general limitations period is 1 year.

Limitation period

The limitations period is 1 year in Tennessee. The countdown normally starts when the claim accrues, which is usually the date of the alleged assault or battery unless a tolling rule or different accrual rule applies.

Here is the practical filing rule:

What the 1-year period means in practice

A 1-year deadline is unforgiving. Even a one-day delay can matter if no tolling applies.

Common workflow for a deadline check:

1. Identify the alleged act date.
2. Confirm the claim type being asserted.
3. Determine when the claim accrued.
4. Check whether any tolling rule extends the deadline.
5. Count forward 1 year and file before the anniversary date.

If the alleged conduct happened on March 10, 2025, the default outside filing date is generally March 10, 2026, unless a recognized tolling rule changes the calculation.

How the calculator uses the date you enter

The DocketMath statute-of-limitations calculator applies the Tennessee 1-year period to the date you provide and returns the projected filing deadline.

The output changes based on the input date:

• Earlier injury date → earlier deadline
• Later injury date → later deadline
• Tolling facts entered elsewhere → may extend the projected date
• Wrong claim date → wrong result, so date accuracy matters

A quick checklist helps:

Key exceptions

No claim-type-specific exception was identified in the source data, but tolling and accrual issues can still affect the deadline. The default 1-year period remains the starting point unless another rule changes when the clock begins or stops.

Tennessee deadline analysis often turns on exceptions like these:

What to check before relying on the default date

Use this short review list:

Why “no sub-rule found” matters

This page uses the general/default period because the provided jurisdiction data did not identify a more specific assault-or-battery rule. That means the safe reference point is the 1-year period tied to the cited statute, rather than a narrower claim-specific exception.

Statute citation

The cited Tennessee statute is Tennessee Code Annotated § 40-35-111(e)(2), and the general limitations period used here is 1 year.

For reference-page work, the citation should be captured exactly as follows:

• **Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-111(e)(2)
• General SOL Period: 1 year
• Source: https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-40/chapter-35/part-1/section-40-35-111/

How to cite it in a deadline note

A concise internal note might read:

Tennessee assault and battery intentional-tort deadline: 1 year under Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-111(e)(2).

That format gives reviewers the core information quickly:

• jurisdiction
• claim family
• deadline length
• statutory anchor

What to record for auditing purposes

If you are documenting the calculation, keep these fields together:

This is the right place to preserve the citation trail before anyone relies on the result.

Use the calculator

Use DocketMath’s statute-of-limitations tool to convert the Tennessee 1-year rule into a filing deadline from your specific date. The calculator is especially useful when the incident date is known but the deadline needs to be confirmed fast.

Open the tool here: /tools/statute-of-limitations

Inputs that matter

When you use the calculator, the core input is the relevant date tied to the claim. The output updates based on the date you select.

Useful inputs to verify first:

• alleged assault date
• alleged battery date
• date of last incident, if there were multiple events
• any fact that could affect accrual
• any known tolling circumstance

How the result changes

The calculator’s output shifts with the date entered and the applicable period:

• Same facts, different date → different deadline
• Same date, different claim type → potentially different deadline
• Same date, tolling applied → later deadline
• Incorrect incident date → unreliable output

Practical use case

If a battery allegedly occurred on July 15, 2025, and no tolling applies, the 1-year rule points to a deadline of July 15, 2026. That is the kind of result the calculator is designed to surface quickly.

Use the tool when you need to:

• sanity-check a deadline before filing
• compare multiple incident dates
• document an internal deadline memo
• spot a claim that is already close to expiration

Related reading

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Related reading

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