How long do I have to file a personal injury claim?

Sometimes, you can get injured, be it due to a slip and fall, or maybe the incident was caused by someone else. Regardless of the situation, it’s very important to receive medical assistance and support. However, those medical bills quickly add up, and you do want to make sure that the person responsible for those injuries will pay the bills instead of you. That’s why it’s a good idea to hire a Greenville personal injury lawyer who can help you file a personal injury claim!

Is there a limit to filing any personal injury claim?

The short answer is yes, you will need to file the personal injury claim until a certain date, usually 2-3 years. There’s a statute of limitations, which states the max limit until you need to initiate legal proceedings by. If the statute of limitations expires, then you won’t have any right to pursue any claim in court.

An important thing to note is that the general timeline will vary between states. In California and Texas or Illinois, the statute of limitations is 2 years. In New York it’s 3 years, and in Florida it goes up to 4. One thing to note is that if you file a claim against the government, the statute of limitations is much shorter, 5-12 months. Additionally, in these cases you have special procedures that you need to follow before you file a lawsuit as well.

Are there any exceptions?

Although the statute of limitations is strict, there are situations when you can extend or pause the deadline.

• If you don’t know right away that you’re injured, the statute of limitations timeline will start once you discover the injury, and not when it actually happened.
• Additionally, if the injured party is a minor, the statute of limitation begins once the minor is 18 years old.
• If the person that was injured was mentally incapacitated, the statute of limitations gets delayed until that person is seen as mentally competent.
• Also, in case the defendant leaves the state after the injury, the statute of limitations pauses until he comes back.

What happens in case you missed the deadline? Normally, the case will be thrown out, no matter if the claim was valid or not. Insurance companies will try to delay negotiations on purpose, as they can pass deadlines without noticing. You always want to track the statute of limitations, otherwise you might not be able to file a lawsuit/claim until it’s too late.

Is it important to be timely with filing a personal injury claim?

Yes, and that’s why you have to work closely with a lawyer. The lawyer will track everything, and also help you file the lawsuit on time. He will make it easy to gather all the medical documentation, while preserving evidence and ensuring that everything is leveraged in negotiations. It helps immensely, and it can provide extraordinary results.

It’s also a good idea to understand that various types of personal injury claims will have their own statute of limitations.

• For example, wrongful death claims begin at the date of death, not at the date of injury, and can be around 1-3 years.
• For workplace injuries, you have 1-3 months to notify the employer, and then up to 2 years to file a claim.
• Then, you have product liability claims that can have a time limit from 2-4 years.
• Lastly, medical malpractice claims have deadlines from 1-3 years, starting with the date of discovery or injury, whichever was the latter.

You should also keep in mind that filing a claim and filing a lawsuit are two different things. You can file a claim with the insurance company for example, and you can settle with them without going to court. If the statute of limitations expired and you filed a claim and not a lawsuit, you will have to settle, there’s no other option since you’re losing the right to sue. That’s why, if you do want to file a lawsuit, it’s a good idea to do that before the statute of limitations expires.

How can you find out the statute of limitations for your own state?

Ideally, you want to hire a personal injury lawyer in Greenville, since he is up to date with all the legal information. He will know until when you have to file the personal injury claim, and that’s extremely important to keep in mind. You can also look up the statute of limitations online and check for any court resources, too.

Working closely with a personal injury attorney is a great idea if you want to make sure that you file a claim/lawsuit as quickly as possible. You should always be aware what statute of limitations you need to follow, just to avoid any late filings. Ideally, you want to file the lawsuit as quickly as you can, as it will help you stay away from unwanted problems.