Personal Injury Lawsuit

After an accident, it is natural to want to heal and recuperate in peace, to settle into your thoughts, and assess your next steps. However, you only have a short window to file a lawsuit for a personal injury claim. While it would be ideal to wait until you are fully recovered, injuries can take months or even years to heal fully, and you don’t have that kind of time if you are looking to recoup your losses from the injury. Therefore, to make sure that you understand the urgency of filing your claim, you need to understand the statute of limitations on personal injuries.

Statute of Limitations

A statute of limitations is the allotted time an individual has to bring legal action against another party. In other words, it is the period in which an at-fault party can be held accountable for their negligence or abuse. In most states, the statute for personal injury cases is two years from the time the injury occurred. However, this timeline is exclusive to filing the claim. Therefore, the trial or settlement negotiations can extend beyond the two years. While this time specification is standard among states, there are some states that allow more time for different injury types. For example, Georgia holds to the statute if the injury is to a person, but if it is personal property, then an individual has up to four years to file.

Minors and Governmental Services

The two-year statute does not directly apply to minors or governmental services, like public transportation. For children, the provision does not apply until they turn 18. Therefore, if a 15-year-old is injured in a car accident, they would have until their 20th birthday to file a suit. However, if you are injured while riding government-provided transportation, it is not uncommon for the statute to be severely diminished to something like three months. Due to the intricacies of personal injury law and its varying timelines, it is beneficial to speak with a licensed personal injury attorney.

Recovery and healing take time, and, in some instances, waiting until you are totally healed means exhausting the statute of limitations. Therefore, to ensure that you are compensated for any injuries or losses, it is necessary to contact a local personal injury lawyer and get your claims process rolling. The fact is, you can drop a claim later if you don’t really want the hassle, which means there is no harm in being proactive.