Personal Injury Lawsuits and Statutes of Limitations
If you’ve been injured due to someone’s carelessness or wanton irresponsibility, filing a personal injury lawsuit makes sense. Seeking legal justice may be the only way of getting the full amount you deserve. However, there are statutes of limitations that prevent court filings from being made whenever you wish. Here are some things you should know about how much time you have to file your lawsuit.
Determining Statutes of Limitation
Statutes of limitations vary depending on the state in which you reside. These deadlines typically apply to a broad array of personal injury incidents. Any scenario where negligence was involved falls into this legal category. Personal injury covers many types of litigation-worthy events, from dog bites and slip-and-fall cases to car accidents.
Sometimes, an incident may involve multiple causes of action. Under these circumstances, there might be more than one deadline. For instance, a car crash could result in damage to your vehicle as well as a trip to the hospital. The damage to your four-wheeled baby would be considered property loss, whereas medical bills would be classified as a personal injury matter. In some regions, the filing deadlines for these separate issues remain different.
Each case determines the specific statutes of limitations that judges observe. Every personal injury incident involves an event that the court carefully considers. This could be the exact time when an injury occurred, or there may be a less specific timeframe, such as the final realization of impact on one’s health. Predicting precisely when the legal system determines your time starts ticking away can be tough.
Extending Statutes of Limitation
Under certain circumstances, courts will extend their filing requirements. For instance, if the litigating party was a minor at the time of the incident, a judge may allow that case to proceed. The same is true if the suing individual became mentally incapacitated. Under such circumstances, it’s reasonable to assume that someone else would need to initiate litigation. Sometimes, a defendant may complicate suing by leaving the state or evading identification. Respectable judges understand why allowances that counterbalance these underhanded strategies must be made.
Hiring a litigation law firm is the best way to make sure litigation is filed before the statute of limitations has passed. Courts typically overlook late petitions, even if missing the deadline was the result of an honest misunderstanding. Hire an experienced attorney from the Federal Practice Group to make certain your case doesn’t suffer such an undesirable fate.