In Illinois, a bad faith insurance claim under Section 155 of the Illinois Insurance Code has a five-year statute of limitations. That’s the short answer — but the deadline that actually matters in your case may be much shorter. The difference between those two timelines is something most policyholders don’t discover until it’s nearly too late. This page breaks down the five-year statutory period, the separate (and shorter) deadline buried in your insurance policy, and how Illinois law pauses the clock under certain conditions.
Is the Statute of Limitations the Same as the Deadline in My Insurance Policy?
No, and this distinction is the single most important thing to understand if you’re worried about running out of time.
The five-year limitations period comes from 735 ILCS 5/13-205, Illinois’s catch-all statute for civil actions. Marcheschi v. Illinois Farmers Insurance Co., 298 Ill. App. 3d 306, 698 N.E.2d 683 (1st Dist. 1998), held that Section 155 claims fall under this five-year window, rejecting the insurer’s argument for the two-year penal-statute limitation.
But the real gatekeeper is the contractual suit-limitation clause in your insurance policy — typically one to two years from the date of loss. Section 155 attaches to a valid breach of contract claim (Cramer v. Insurance Exchange Agency, 174 Ill. 2d 513 (1996); Moles v. Illinois Farmers Insurance Co., 2023 IL App (1st) 220853), and if the contract claim expires before you file, the five-year window is irrelevant. Our page on insurance lawsuit filing deadlines provides the full analysis of how these two clocks interact.
Does the Clock Stop While My Insurer Is Reviewing My Claim?
Under certain conditions, yes. Illinois law includes a tolling provision — 215 ILCS 5/143.1 — that pauses your policy’s contractual suit-limitation period from the date you file a proof of loss until the date the insurer denies your claim. Mitchell v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., 343 Ill. App. 3d 281, 796 N.E.2d 617 (4th Dist. 2003). The tolling protects the contract claim that Section 155 rides on — if the contract claim survives, Section 155 survives.
Two critical limits apply. First, your proof of loss must comply with the policy’s requirements and be filed in a timely manner — D’Agostino v. Illinois Farmers Insurance Co., 2023 IL App (1st) 210567-U (tolling denied where proof of loss was not submitted until years after the triggering event). Second, Section 143.1 only tolls the contractual deadline, not the five-year statutory limitation.
What Should I Do Right Now to Protect My Deadline?
If you’re reading this because you suspect your insurer acted in bad faith — whether through a wrongful denial, a lowball offer, or months of delay — the most important thing you can do is determine exactly where you stand on both deadlines. Those two clocks are the contractual suit-limitation in your policy and the five-year statutory period. They run on different tracks, and the shorter one controls.
Start by locating your policy’s suit-limitation clause and identifying the date of loss. If you haven’t already filed a proof of loss that complies with the policy’s requirements, do it now. That is what triggers the tolling protection under Section 143.1, and without it, the contractual deadline keeps running. Preserve every piece of correspondence with your insurer: denial letters, adjuster reports, emails, voicemails, and notes from phone calls.
Then talk to an attorney who handles first-party property insurance litigation and Section 155 claims. The deadline analysis is case-specific — it depends on when the loss occurred, when proof of loss was filed, when the denial was issued, and what your policy says. At Mag Mile Law in Chicago, attorneys Steven Mikuzis and Mario Iveljic focus on insurance coverage disputes, bad faith denial claims, and Section 155 litigation for property owners across Illinois. A consultation can tell you whether your deadlines are still open and what a realistic path forward looks like.
The five-year statute of limitations is more forgiving than most people expect. But the policy deadline it depends on may not be. Every day that passes without action is a day closer to losing the right to act at all.
