Not the same as a statute of limitations. A statute of repose does not usually start when someone gets hurt or discovers a problem. Instead, it sets an outside cutoff date that runs from a fixed event - often when a product was sold, a building was completed, or work was finished. Once that deadline passes, a case can be barred even if the injury happened later. It is the legal system's version of "time's up, no matter what."

That difference matters because a repose deadline can wipe out a claim before an injured person even knows there is one. In an injury case, that can affect who can be sued, what evidence still matters, and whether settlement talks have any leverage at all. A lawyer looking at a crash, a defect, or a dangerous property condition will want to know not just when the injury happened, but what earlier event may have started the clock.

In New York, the wrinkle is that there is no broad, general statute of repose for ordinary personal injury claims the way some other states have. Most deadlines are controlled instead by statutes of limitations under the CPLR and, for claims against a city, by General Municipal Law § 50-e and § 50-i. So if a pothole reported through 311 leads to a blowout or motorcycle crash, the real fight is usually over notice and filing deadlines - not a broad repose rule.