The phylogeny and related evolutionary history of rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) remain unclear. This study provides phylogenetic analyses for the family based on three genes (mitochondrial COI, nuclear protein-coding wingless and a portion of the ribosomal 28S rDNA) including 2413 bp for 104 taxa representing most major staphylinid lineages. The subfamilies Oxyporinae, Paederinae, Steninae, and Proteininae are all well-supported clades, as evidenced by all three inference methods, namely maximum parsimony, Bayesian inference, and maximum likelihood. From fossils available for calibration, the divergence time of the main lineages in the family is estimated based on an uncorrelated lognormal relaxed molecular clock analysis method. The molecular clock analysis suggests that the family Staphylinidae dates from approximately the Early Triassic epoch and the most lineages of the family started to radiate from the Late Jurassic to the Early Paleogene.