When does the general six-year limitation for suit against the United States expire?

Section 2401(a) ordinarily requires the complaint within six years after the right of action first accrues. Its text excepts chapter 71 of title 41 and provides a separate disability or beyond-the-seas provision. This calculator uses an independently established ordinary accrual event; it does not decide jurisdiction, accrual or those exceptions.

Responsible actor. The plaintiff bringing the covered civil action against the United States.

Identify the cause of action and why section 2401(a) governs.

Establish its first-accrual date. For an APA action, review the actual Corner Post holding and the plaintiff’s injury.

Check the chapter 71 exception and statutory disability language.

Use for the established ordinary section 2401(a) component in a covered federal civil action. An FTCA claim and a Court of Federal Claims action require their separate statutory reviews.

1. Date the particular right of action first legally accrued
2. For the established federal civil court component, FRCP 6(a)(1) excludes the trigger day and includes intermediate weekends and holidays. A period in months or years uses its corresponding calendar date, rather than a fixed number of days. The final weekend or legal holiday moves forward under Rule 6(a). A target month or year without the corresponding day requires separate endpoint review; this calculator refuses that input.
3. File the covered complaint in the proper court. Preserve the facts establishing accrual and the specific basis for using section 2401(a).

Retained 2024 annual U.S. Code, laws in effect January 6, 2025. The subsequent-law review covers the retained 119th Congress corpus through Public Law 119-118, approved September 30, 2026. Its scoped candidate findings do not establish every claim-specific exception or later judicial application. This page requires the stated covered cause and legally established event. Court computation uses the retained December 1, 2025 FRCP compilation; identified agency regulations use their separately stated 2026 API editions.

The calendar covers established events and results from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2033. OPM observations for 2025–2030 are independently checked. Dates in 2031–2033 are standing-rule projections under 5 U.S.C. § 6103, not published OPM schedules. Additional presidential, congressional or district-state holidays, amendments and actual clerk inaccessibility require separate review. Inauguration Day is not treated as a nationwide district-court holiday. The coverage boundary does not establish statutory applicability or lateness.

Fictitious example

Fictitious independently established facts. Use for the established ordinary section 2401(a) component in a covered federal civil action. An FTCA claim and a Court of Federal Claims action require their separate statutory reviews.

Fictitious independently established events and classifications. The displayed result is this one untolled component. Securities earlier-of comparisons and alternative wage classifications are separately identified. These examples do not determine accrual, discovery, statutory liability, the actual forum, an exception, a completed filing or an unrecorded closure. Use for the established ordinary section 2401(a) component in a covered federal civil action. An FTCA claim and a Court of Federal Claims action require their separate statutory reviews.

APA accrual

Corner Post addresses when an APA claim accrues for the injured plaintiff. A rule’s publication date is not automatically every plaintiff’s accrual date.

Disability provision

The statute states a separate three-year-after-disability-ceases provision for the described persons. The ordinary six-year preset does not resolve it.

Different sovereign claims

Do not substitute this general component for section 2401(b), section 2501 or a specific claim statute.

Calendar and endpoint coverage

The calendar covers established events and results from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2033. OPM observations for 2025–2030 are independently checked. Dates in 2031–2033 are standing-rule projections under 5 U.S.C. § 6103, not published OPM schedules. Additional presidential, congressional or district-state holidays, amendments and actual clerk inaccessibility require separate review. Inauguration Day is not treated as a nationwide district-court holiday. The coverage boundary does not establish statutory applicability or lateness.

• Use for the established ordinary section 2401(a) component in a covered federal civil action. An FTCA claim and a Court of Federal Claims action require their separate statutory reviews.
• The calculation supplies the stated component on established facts. Unmodeled tolling, competing components and claim-specific exceptions require separate controlling review.

• Identify the cause of action and why section 2401(a) governs.
• Establish its first-accrual date. For an APA action, review the actual Corner Post holding and the plaintiff’s injury.
• Check the chapter 71 exception and statutory disability language.
• Corner Post addresses when an APA claim accrues for the injured plaintiff. A rule’s publication date is not automatically every plaintiff’s accrual date.
• The statute states a separate three-year-after-disability-ceases provision for the described persons. The ordinary six-year preset does not resolve it.
• Do not substitute this general component for section 2401(b), section 2501 or a specific claim statute.
• For this federal civil court component, FRCP 3 uses filing the complaint to commence the action, subject to a specific statutory requirement such as claimant written consent. Under FRCP 6(a)(4), the last day ordinarily ends at midnight in the court’s time zone for electronic filing, or at scheduled clerk closing for other filing. A different statute, local rule or court order can set a different time. Establish the actual court and completed filing; an unsuccessful attempt is not automatically a completed filing. Rule 6(a)(3) concerns actual clerk inaccessibility. Rule 6(d) is not an automatic addition to statutory accrual, discovery, denial-mailing or notice-receipt components.