What is Illinois’s limitation period for slander, libel or publication-based privacy claims?

Identify a claim for slander, libel or publication of matter violating privacy.

Independently establish when that cause of action accrued.

Record why Section 13-201 governs rather than treating every privacy claim as a publication claim.

1. Identify a claim for slander, libel or publication of matter violating privacy.
2. Count one calendar year from the independently established accrual date, using the anniversary boundary and Section 1.11’s final-day treatment. Do not replace accrual with a later discovery date without a governing basis.
3. Check the final weekend, statutory holiday and the proper court’s actual calendar.
4. Commence the covered action within the applicable limitation period. Preserve the claim classification, accrual evidence, complaint and actual filing record. The calculation does not establish service diligence or pleading sufficiency.

Section 1.11 excludes a final Saturday, Sunday or statutory holiday and consecutive excluded days. Section 17(a) of the Promissory Note and Bank Holiday Act includes Pulaski Day, Good Friday and the general election for members of the House of Representatives. Check proclamations, the proper court’s actual calendar and clerk access separately. The bundled Illinois calendar covers 2026 and 2027.

Fictitious example

Use the ordinary Section 13-201 period only after classifying the claim and establishing accrual. This page does not assign an accrual date to a publication or decide a different privacy theory. Fictitious established event. No extension, tolling, competing deadline or special order is assumed.

Fictitious facts. The event and statutory classification are independently established. The calculator does not determine accrual, legal disability, fraudulent concealment, effective agency service or an actual court extension.

Publication-based privacy is the specified category

Section 13-201 names slander, libel and publication of matter violating privacy. Its wording does not classify every cause of action involving personal information.

The calculator assumes accrual has been established

The statutory text starts at accrual. The date entered must reflect the applicable accrual analysis, not an unsupported assumption that later awareness creates a new year.

Minority or legal disability can require Section 13-211

Section 13-211(a) covers specified Sections 13-201 through 13-210 where minority or legal disability existed at accrual. Subsection (b) separately addresses later-arising disability.

Fraudulent concealment requires its own facts

Section 13-215 addresses concealment of the cause of action by the liable person and discovery by the entitled person. A delayed discovery date alone does not establish that provision.

• This calculation does not determine whether relief is available or whether the facts satisfy the statute.
• A current statutory edition does not establish the law for every historical claim. Preserve the applicable edition and actual orders.

• Identify a claim for slander, libel or publication of matter violating privacy.
• Independently establish when that cause of action accrued.
• Record why Section 13-201 governs rather than treating every privacy claim as a publication claim.
• Section 13-201 names slander, libel and publication of matter violating privacy. Its wording does not classify every cause of action involving personal information.
• The statutory text starts at accrual. The date entered must reflect the applicable accrual analysis, not an unsupported assumption that later awareness creates a new year.
• Section 13-211(a) covers specified Sections 13-201 through 13-210 where minority or legal disability existed at accrual. Subsection (b) separately addresses later-arising disability.
• Section 13-215 addresses concealment of the cause of action by the liable person and discovery by the entitled person. A delayed discovery date alone does not establish that provision.
• Commence the covered action within the applicable limitation period. Preserve the claim classification, accrual evidence, complaint and actual filing record. The calculation does not establish service diligence or pleading sufficiency. File with the proper clerk in the required format. Rule 9 ordinarily requires civil electronic filing, subject to its exceptions and exemptions. Rule 9(f) ordinarily requires submission before midnight in the court time zone unless a statute, rule or actual order specifies a different time. A submission on a closed clerk day ordinarily receives the next open-day stamp. Preserve the actual electronic file mark, receipt and any filing-relief order. Filing and service are distinct acts.