The Carmack 9-Month Claim Deadline

The 9-month minimum to file a written claim

14706(e)(1) is a prohibition aimed at the carrier. The carrier may not, by rule, contract, or otherwise, provide a period of less than 9 months for filing a claim. The sentence does not say every claim expires on day 274. It says the carrier cannot set a shorter period. If the bill of lading, the tariff, or the contract gives 12 months, the claimant has the 12 months the paper gave. If the paper gives 30 days, the paper loses to the statute on that point.

The day count for a delivered shipment starts at delivery. If the goods never arrive, the practical start is the reasonable date delivery should have happened. Use the date you can prove. A claim filed on rumors, before anyone knows whether the freight is lost, can still be a claim if it meets 370.3. A claim filed after a short contractual deadline is not late if that deadline was illegally short. A claim filed after a lawful longer deadline is late. Read both the statute and the paper.

This page will not walk the investigation, the mitigation, or the salvage credit. Those steps are the claims process. If you miss the filing floor, those steps do not matter. If you make the filing and skip the file, you have a timely claim with a thin record. Do the clock first.

What has to be in the writing

49 CFR 370.3(b) describes the communication that counts as filing a claim. It is written or electronic. It is filed with the proper carrier within the time limits specified in the bill of lading or contract. It contains facts sufficient to identify the shipment. It asserts liability for alleged loss, damage, injury, or delay. It makes a claim for the payment of a specified or determinable amount of money.

All three content pieces are required. A letter that says "the load was short, we will send numbers later" identifies a problem and may assert liability, and it still fails the amount if the amount cannot be determined from what was sent. A spreadsheet of invoice prices with no statement that the carrier is being held liable is a number without a claim. A phone call has none of the writing. A broker's instant message can be electronic writing if it actually contains the three elements and reaches the carrier. Do not assume a chat thread did that because it was angry.

Specified or determinable means the carrier can tell what is being demanded. "Our damages" is not determinable. "Invoice 4410, $4,200, less any salvage we recover, demand as calculated" can be determinable if the invoice is identified. Send the writing to the carrier, not only to the broker, unless the contract makes the broker the place claims are filed. The regulation says the proper carrier.

Two years from a written disallowance to sue

The same subsection sets a second floor: not less than 2 years for bringing a civil action. The two years are computed from the date the carrier gives a person written notice that the carrier has disallowed any part of the claim specified in the notice. They are not computed from delivery, and they are not computed from the day you filed.

14706(e)(2) keeps carriers from starting that lawsuit clock by accident. An offer of compromise is not a disallowance of any part of the claim unless the carrier, in writing, informs the claimant that such part is disallowed and provides reasons. Communications from a carrier's insurer are not a disallowance unless the insurer, in writing, disallows the part, gives the reason, and states that the insurer is acting on behalf of the carrier. A check for half, mailed without those words, is a tender. It is not automatically the letter that starts the two years. Read what the paper says it is doing.

A contract that says you must sue within 90 days of delivery undercuts both floors and does not control. A contract that says you have two years from disallowance meets the floor. A contract that says three years from disallowance is more than the floor and can be what you agreed.

Contract language that tries to be shorter

Bills still say claims for visible loss must be filed within 30 days, or sometimes 90. As against the 9-month minimum, a shorter filing period is not enforceable. Say that as "cannot be less than." Do not say the period "is always 9 months," because a lawful contract may give the claimant longer, and the longer period is the one the claimant must meet if it is the one in the contract.

The same reading applies to a rate confirmation that whispers a 15-day notice and calls it the claim deadline. Notice to a broker can be a contract duty. It is not a license to shrink 14706(e). File the notice the contract asks for, and file the claim within a period that is at least 9 months. Missing a contractual notice can still be a fight. Missing the statutory floor is a different fight, and it is the one this page is about. Do not skip a notice you agreed to just because the statute gives you months to file the claim itself.

Concealed damage is a different, shorter courtesy rule

Many bills ask the consignee to report concealed damage within 5 days of delivery. That practice, and the arguments around it, are already written on the concealed-damage 5-day guide. It is a notice problem. It is not the Carmack filing period. A claimant who sends a perfect 5-day notice and never sends a claim with an amount has notified. A claimant who misses the courtesy notice and still files a proper claim inside 9 months has a different argument, one the other guide takes up. Neither fact replaces the other.

Visible shortage is not concealed. Waiting five days to mention a shortage everyone saw on the dock is how the delivery receipt becomes the problem. The notation belongs on the POD the day of delivery. The claim still has months. Do not use the months as a reason to sign the POD clean.

A calendar from a delivery date to the last filing day

Use a real date and label it as an illustration of the count, not as the outcome of a case. Suppose the shipment was delivered on January 15, 2026, and the contract uses the statutory minimum rather than a longer period. Nine months after January 15, 2026 is October 15, 2026. A filing rule that tried to end the claim on February 14, 2026, thirty days later, cannot be the period. A filing rule that gave the claimant until January 15, 2027 would be more than 9 months, and that later date would be the contract date to watch.

Now suppose a proper claim was filed on June 1, 2026, and on August 1, 2026 the carrier wrote that it disallowed $4,200 of the claim and stated the reasons. The two-year floor for a lawsuit on that disallowed part runs from August 1, 2026, not from January 15. Two years from August 1, 2026 is August 1, 2028. A letter that only said "we are reviewing" did not start that count. A letter that offered $1,000 "to resolve this" did not start it either, unless it also said the rest was disallowed and gave reasons.

The cargo claims process tells you what else goes in the folder. The folder without these dates is a story. The dates without the folder are a timely empty envelope. You need both, and only the dates belong on this page.

Frequently Asked Questions