A statute of repose Arizona courts apply works nothing like an ordinary filing deadline. A statute of limitations starts counting from your injury, or from when you discover it. A statute of repose starts counting from an entirely different event. That event often happens years before any injury occurs. It can close the door on a claim before the claim even exists. Arizona currently enforces one real statute of repose. It also has one on the books that hasn’t been enforceable in over three decades. Knowing which is which changes how you should think about “how much time do I have.”
What a statute of limitations actually measures
Arizona’s general personal injury statute of limitations gives you two years to file a lawsuit. That two-year clock runs from the date of injury, or from when you reasonably should have discovered it, under A.R.S. § 12-542. This clock is about your claim specifically. It starts when you’re hurt. It can pause in narrow situations, such as when the injured person is a minor.
What a statute of repose measures instead
A statute of repose runs from a different starting point. It doesn’t track your injury. It tracks some earlier fixed event, like when a company sold a product or a builder finished a project. It sets an absolute outer deadline. That deadline applies no matter when your injury happened or when you discovered the harm. A discovery rule can pause a statute of limitations. A statute of repose generally ignores discovery rules entirely, because it never tracked your knowledge of the injury in the first place. It tracks the underlying transaction instead.
Arizona’s construction statute of repose is real, and strict
A.R.S. § 12-552 sets an eight-year statute of repose for claims involving the design, engineering, or construction of a real property improvement. That period stretches to nine years if a latent defect first surfaces during year eight. Arizona courts enforce this repose period in full. A foundation crack that first appears in year eleven has no legal remedy against the builder. That’s true no matter how clearly the defect traces back to original construction.
Arizona’s product liability statute of repose isn’t enforced
A.R.S. § 12-551 still lists a twelve-year statute of repose for product liability claims. In practice, courts don’t apply it. The Arizona Supreme Court struck it down in Hazine v. Montgomery Elevator Co. in 1993. The court ruled that cutting off an injury claim before the injury even happens violates the Arizona Constitution’s anti-abrogation clause. That clause permanently guarantees the right to sue for injuries. A twelve-year-old escalator that injures someone today can still support a product liability claim in Arizona. Arizona courts simply don’t enforce the statute’s text as written.
Why the distinction matters for your claim
Don’t assume every “years since X” figure you find online applies the way it’s written. Arizona’s construction-related repose period is a hard stop. Courts enforce it strictly, with essentially no exceptions beyond the narrow year-eight discovery window. Arizona’s product liability repose period still appears in the statute books. Despite that, it hasn’t barred a single claim since 1993.
The bottom line
A statute of repose sounds like a stricter cousin of the statute of limitations, but the two protect different things. One protects your right to sue once you’re hurt. The other protects a defendant’s exposure to claims tied to an old transaction. Arizona enforces its construction-related repose period without much mercy. Its own courts refused to enforce the product liability version, because doing so would have closed a courthouse door before anyone had a chance to walk through it. The gap isn’t in the law itself. It’s in how often “statute of repose” gets treated as one uniform rule when Arizona actually applies it two very different ways.
Frequently asked questions
A statute of limitations runs from your injury or its discovery. A statute of repose runs from an earlier fixed event, like a sale or completion date, and generally can’t be paused by discovery rules.
No. A.R.S. § 12-551 lists a 12-year repose period, but the Arizona Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in Hazine v. Montgomery Elevator Co. in 1993. Courts haven’t enforced it since.
Eight years from substantial completion of the improvement, extended to nine years if a latent defect is discovered during the eighth year, under A.R.S. § 12-552.
Yes. That’s the defining feature of a repose period. It sets an absolute outer deadline tied to a transaction date rather than to when harm occurs.
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This article explains general Arizona deadline rules for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Repose and limitation periods involve exceptions that depend on your specific facts; consult an attorney to confirm how they apply to your situation.