Defenses / Statute of limitations

The statute of limitations: four years, counted from each call

Updated 2026-11-035 minute read

The TCPA has no limitations period of its own, so the federal catch-all applies: four years, under 28 U.S.C. § 1658(a). Every call is a separate violation with its own four-year clock, which starts when the call is made. A campaign from five years ago is out of time. A campaign from three years ago is not, and will not be for another year. The defense is arithmetic, and it only works if you still have the dates.

The rule

Section 1658(a) of Title 28 sets a four-year limitations period for civil actions arising under federal statutes enacted after 1990 that do not specify their own. The TCPA was enacted in 1991 and specifies none. Courts apply the four years to TCPA claims.

When the clock starts

At the call. Each call or text is a separate violation and each one accrues on the day it was made. A letter listing twelve calls over three years is twelve clocks, not one, and the oldest may expire while the newest are live. There is no single date for "the campaign". Calls inside the window are then tested on consent as a TCPA defense.

When the clock stops

When a complaint is filed in court. A demand letter does not stop the clock, and it does not start one. Negotiations do not stop it either, unless the parties sign a tolling agreement, which is rare in demand-letter matters. The practical point: a sender that waits three and a half years to write has a claim that is ticking, and a recipient that stalls does not thereby help itself much, because the sender can file at any time before the four years run.

Tolling

The main exception is class-action tolling under the American Pipe rule: while a putative class action covering the same calls is pending, the individual claims of the class members are tolled. A business that was named in a class action that was later dismissed or decertified can face individual claims from class members that would otherwise look stale. Check whether any class action covered the campaign in the letter.

State claims run separately

Florida's statute, Fla. Stat. § 501.059, and other state telemarketing statutes have their own limitations periods, which may be shorter or longer than four years. Do not quote the federal period for a state claim. Check the state statute or the state court's self-help resources.

Using it

In a demand letter dispute, date every listed call and strike those older than four years from the count, in writing, with the dates. In litigation, the limitations defense is an affirmative defense: plead it in the answer or risk waiving it. In both settings it is only as good as your records. If you deleted the logs, the plaintiff's records set the dates, and the plaintiff will have kept them. The records to hold are listed under evidence to preserve now.