5 Exceptions To The Personal Injury Statute Of Limitations
Nearly everyone knows about the statute of limitations; it's a legal stop sign meant to prevent filers from suing another party if a certain amount of time has elapsed since the accident or injury. When it comes to personal injury cases, every state has statutes of limitations that vary from as little as 1 year to up to 6 years. Most states have a statue of limitations of 2 years. If you have been injured because of someone's negligence, and fear that you have exceeded the statute of limitations in your state, you might be interested in learning about 5 main exceptions. Read on to learn whether or not you still have time to file suit.
1. Discovery of Harm
Not all injuries take place in a single instant, some are cumulative. For example, after a toxic substance exposure, the full impact of the damage done to your body could take several years to become obvious. The statue of limitations, therefore, does not begin to run until you discover the harm, not when the harm first happened. You must take note, however, that once you know about the harm, or once you should have known about the harm, you have only a limited amount of time to file suit. If you ignore symptoms and fail to seek medical care, the defendants could argue that a reasonable person would have sought a diagnosis earlier.
2, 3 and 4. Incapacitated, Mentally Ill and Minors
If you are incapacitated in some way, such as hospitalized, the statute of limitations can be suspended until your doctor declares you fit again. For those who are mentally ill, no personal injury statute of limitations exists at all. For those who suffer from an injury before they reach their state's majority, which is 18 in most cases, the statute of limitations clock begins to tick once they reach that age. For example, even children injured at birth are allowed to wait until they are 18 or later to file suit against the medical facility, though in most cases the parents would have already taken action.
5. Change in State of Residence
Injured parties can temporarily suspend the statute of limitations by moving to a different state than where the injury occurred, in some instances. Moving back into that state will being the clock ticking again, picking up wherever it left off previously.
While relatively rare, for those who fit into the excepted categories above it's a bonus amount of time to take action. Contact a personal injury attorney or law firm like Bendell Law Firm for more assistance and information.
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