FEHA right-to-sue deadlines in California: the CRD filing and one-year lawsuit clock

A FEHA case has two clocks, and a firm can miss either one. The first is the deadline to file with the Civil Rights Department (CRD). The second is the deadline to file the lawsuit after the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice. This guide sets out both, the extensions and tolling rules that move them, and the related claims that run on clocks of their own. It is general information, not legal advice: confirm every date against the current statute for the case in front of you.

Both of the main sections, Gov. Code 12960 and 12965, were amended again effective January 1, 2026 (SB 477). Older articles cite different subdivision letters. The citations below are to the current text.

Clock one: filing with the CRD

FEHA requires exhaustion of administrative remedies: before suing under FEHA, the employee files a complaint with the CRD. Since AB 9 took effect on January 1, 2020, the deadline for employment complaints is three years from the unlawful practice. Before AB 9 it was one year, and AB 9 says it does not revive claims that had already lapsed.

Two practical points follow. First, the clock runs from each unlawful act, so a file with a demotion in 2023 and a termination in 2026 has two different dates. Courts apply a continuing-violation analysis to a course of conduct (see Yanowitz v. L'Oreal USA, Inc. (2005) 36 Cal.4th 1028), but do not plan around it. Calendar the earliest act you intend to plead. Second, the intake form is the filing. A firm that waits to finish a polished complaint before filing anything has spent time it did not need to spend.

Getting the right-to-sue notice

There are two routes to a right-to-sue notice.

• Immediate right to sue. Most represented employees request it through the CRD's online system (CCRS). The CRD closes the complaint without investigating and issues the notice right away (2 CCR 10005).
• After a CRD investigation. If the CRD has not filed its own action within 150 days, or decides earlier that it will not, it issues the notice on request. Otherwise it issues the notice when it closes the investigation, no later than one year after the complaint was filed (Gov. Code 12965(c)(1)(A)). Group or class complaints run on a two-year outer limit (12965(c)(1)(B)).

When the complainant has private counsel, Gov. Code 12962 puts service of the complaint on the employer on counsel, not the CRD, and lists the permitted methods and timing. Read the current text and calendar the service date the day the notice issues.

The CRD's own page warns that it does not send an immediate right-to-sue complaint to the EEOC. If the client may want federal claims, file an EEOC charge separately and on time. Our EEOC deadlines by state guide covers that clock.

Clock two: one year to file the lawsuit

The right-to-sue notice tells the employee they may bring a civil action "within one year from the date of that notice" (Gov. Code 12965(c)(1)(D)). The date runs from the notice, not from when the client or the firm read it. For an immediate right-to-sue request, that date is usually the day the firm requested it.

The safe practice is simple: when the notice issues, calendar one year from its date, put a review date 60 to 90 days earlier, and assign the complaint draft to a person. Our right-to-sue deadline calculator does the counting and shows its basis.

Tolling: what stops or moves the clock

Several rules can extend the lawsuit deadline. None of them should replace the plain one-year date on the calendar.

• Tolling during the CRD complaint (SB 807). Gov. Code 12960(f) tolls the time to file a civil action from the filing of a CRD complaint until the CRD files suit, or until one year after the CRD gives written notice that it closed its investigation without suing. How this interacts with an immediate right-to-sue request is not settled. Conservative firms sue within one year of the notice regardless.
• EEOC investigation. When the EEOC takes the lead on a dual-filed charge, or reviews the CRD's work, Gov. Code 12965(e) and (f) set the deadline at the later of the federal right-to-sue period or one year from the CRD notice. Keep both notices in the file.
• Equitable tolling. McDonald v. Antelope Valley Community College Dist. (2008) 45 Cal.4th 88 held that the FEHA limitations period can be equitably tolled while an employee voluntarily pursues an internal remedy, such as a grievance. It is a defense to a late filing, not a plan.
• Tolling agreements. Pre-suit negotiation often runs on a written tolling agreement. Read what it covers: which claims, which parties, which deadline (the CRD filing, the civil filing, or both), and the exact end date. Calendar the end date as a hard deadline, because the clock starts again the next day.

Claims that run on their own clocks

Employment complaints rarely plead FEHA alone. The related claims have different deadlines, and some need no CRD filing at all.

CFRA leave claims are part of FEHA (Gov. Code 12945.2), so they follow the same CRD process.

A deadline checklist for every FEHA file

1. Date of every adverse act, from the client's account and the documents, each with its three-year CRD date.
2. Date the CRD intake was filed, and the CRD matter number.
3. Whether the firm requested an immediate right-to-sue notice, and the notice date.
4. One year from the notice date, with a review date before it.
5. Service of the complaint on the employer, with method and date.
6. Whether an EEOC charge was filed separately, and its deadline.
7. Any tolling agreement: parties, claims, start and end dates.
8. The clocks for every non-FEHA claim you will plead.
9. Who owns each date, and who checks it.

Tracking the clock in PlaintiffStack

PlaintiffStack's employment practice is built around these dates. Cases move through phases that include Exhaustion and Right to sue, and an Exhaustion and tolling page keeps the CRD filing, the notice date and any tolling agreement on the case. A morning check flags civil filing deadlines after the right-to-sue and tolling agreements about to end. Deadlines are computed and shown with their rule and basis so a person confirms them; nothing is applied silently. Court deadlines after the complaint is filed come from court rules your attorneys have adopted, on the firm's calendar.