All jurisdictions

Arkansas

In Arkansas, the statute of limitations on a written contract is 5 years under Ark. Code Ann. §§ 16-56-105, 16-56-111 (§ 16-56-111(a) quoted in Pennington v. BHP Billiton Petroleum (Fayetteville), LLC, 2021 Ark. 189).

Written contract

5 yr

Oral contract

3 yr

Open account

—

Promissory note

—

What the statute says

When does the clock start?

Five years from accrual on a written obligation (§ 16-56-111(a)); three years under § 16-56-105 otherwise, which the Court of Appeals applied to a claim on an oral contract in Southern Forestry & Wildlife, LLC v. Feinman, 2024 Ark. App. 234. Five or three is therefore a question of proof: a card claim lands at five only if a signed written agreement is actually in evidence. The Arkansas Supreme Court’s test is that a breach-of-contract claim accrues “when the plaintiff could have first maintained the action to a successful conclusion” (Pennington v. BHP Billiton Petroleum (Fayetteville), LLC, 2021 Ark. 189). NOTE ON THE SOURCE: Arkansas does not publish its own Code — the General Assembly links out to the LexisNexis-published Arkansas Code Annotated, which serves no section text to anything but a browser — so the citation above links to the Arkansas Supreme Court’s opinion, which reproduces § 16-56-111(a) verbatim.

What pauses it?

Ark. Code Ann. § 16-56-111 provides that “partial payment or written acknowledgment of default shall toll this statute of limitation” — language the Court of Appeals quoted in Wilmington Savings Fund Society v. Smith, 2023 Ark. App. 297, from Act 664 of 1989, § 1, rather than from the current codified subsection. The disability, armed-forces and absconding-debtor provisions asserted in the earlier research pass (§§ 16-56-116, 16-56-118 to 16-56-121) were not read at any reachable source and are not asserted here.

In practice

Arkansas does not publish its own Code. The General Assembly's site links out to the LexisNexis-published Arkansas Code Annotated at lexisnexis.com/hottopics/arcode/, which serves no statutory text to anything but a browser and cannot be deep-linked to a section — the no-stable-official-URL case in editorial policy §2.3. The link on this row therefore opens the Arkansas Supreme Court's own opinion in Pennington v. BHP Billiton Petroleum (Fayetteville), LLC, 2021 Ark. 189, on the Judiciary's server, which reproduces § 16-56-111(a) verbatim. TWO THINGS A COLLECTIONS FILE TURNS ON. First, five years or three is a question of proof rather than of law: § 16-56-111(a) reaches written obligations, and § 16-56-105 catches contract claims generally at three years — the Court of Appeals applied it to a claim on an oral contract in Southern Forestry & Wildlife, LLC v. Feinman, 2024 Ark. App. 234 — so a card claim lands at five only if a signed written agreement is actually in evidence. Second, the open-account and promissory-note columns are blank on purpose, not by oversight: no separate Arkansas open-account period was found, and Ark. Code Ann. § 4-3-118 (five years or the uniform six) remains unread at any source reachable without a Lexis session, so no note figure is asserted.

Last reviewed 2026-07-27

This is an informational reference, not legal advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. Limitations periods turn on facts this page cannot know — which state's law governs, the contract type, when the claim accrued, and whether anything tolled or revived it. Confirm against the primary source and your own counsel before acting.