Hey @mileneh

California attorney here (not your attorney). General info only.

• Negligence basics: Under California negligence principles, the core elements are duty, breach, causation, and damages.

• Med mal uses CCP 340.5: A professional negligence claim against a health care provider must be filed by the earlier of (1) three years after the date of injury, or (2) one year after you discover, or should have discovered with reasonable diligence, the injury.

• “Discovery” is often earlier than “confirmed by imaging”: California courts commonly treat discovery as starting when you suspect or should suspect wrongdoing and have enough information to put a reasonable person on inquiry, not when you have definitive proof.

• What that means for your timeline: November 2025 could be a defensible discovery date if that is truly the first point you reasonably could connect the long-term harm to the June 2024 care. But a defense may argue you were on inquiry notice earlier (for example, when you rapidly worsened, or when you were told surgery should have happened within 48 hours). That is why you are hearing conflicting answers.

• Your proposed dates are not automatically right because the “earlier wins”: Even if the three-year outer limit could land around June 2027, you still must comply with the earlier deadline, which could be the one-year discovery deadline (and it might be earlier than November 2026 if discovery is found to be earlier than November 2025).

• Also remember the 90-day notice rule: Before filing, CCP 364 generally requires at least 90 days’ notice to the provider, and if notice is served within 90 days of the limitations deadline, it can extend the filing time by 90 days from service.

• Public hospital or county clinic issue: If any provider is a public entity, a separate government claim deadline can apply, including a six-month claim presentation deadline for personal injury claims.

If you want the fastest clarity, focus a lawyer on two questions: (1) the earliest date a reasonable person in your shoes would have suspected negligent causation, and (2) what date counts as the “date of injury” under 340.5 for your facts.

Gordon Levinson

Hello @levinsonlawgroup, thank you for your response. I really appreciate it!

If I was told shortly after the injury (June 2024) that surgery ideally should have happened within 48 hours, but every follow-up X-ray in 2024 to 2025 was reported as “healing fine,” and no provider linked my long-term problems to the initial delay until new imaging in November 2025 showed malunion and failing hardware, how do California courts usually decide the “discovery” date under CCP 340.5? Specifically, does an early comment like “you should have had surgery sooner” typically trigger inquiry notice even when later providers and imaging repeatedly reassured me nothing was wrong, and does the CCP 364 90-day notice requirement (or any public hospital involvement) change how I should calculate the safest filing deadline?

@mileneh

Courts ask when a reasonable person would suspect wrongdoing and feel prompted to investigate, not when malpractice is proven.

That early statement about surgery within 48 hours is the kind of fact a defense would argue triggered inquiry notice. But courts also look at context. Repeated reassurance that imaging looked normal can delay discovery if a reasonable patient would rely on it. Judges weigh the whole timeline: what you were told, whether symptoms continued, and whether later providers contradicted the idea that anything was wrong. So November 2025 is arguable as a discovery date, but the 2024 comment gives the defense something to fight over. These disputes are often fact driven and sometimes end up decided by a jury.

CCP 364 does not change the discovery date. It only affects filing timing. You first calculate the one year under 340.5, then work backward at least 90 days to serve notice. Most lawyers calendar from the earliest date a court might call discovery, not the most favorable one, to avoid statute problems.

If any provider was a public hospital or clinic, the government claim rules can add a separate six month deadline. That system is unforgiving, so lawyers treat those dates very conservatively.