As you quietly shut the door to the attorney’s office and walk back to your car, you cannot shake the shock. You knew time was flying by, it has seemed to do that more and more as you have grown older, and even more so since the accident, but you had no idea that it had already been two years!
You live through that night over and over in your head. The wet road, the screeching tires. The green light ahead of you, and the pain as the car smashed through your door and pinned you into your car. You were in the hospital for what seemed like forever, and then the physical therapy. It feels like you have just started getting your head together, and now you find it is too late to sue. Everyone said that you needed to get in touch with an attorney, but you didn’t get around to it until today. And as of 10 minutes ago, you found out that you were too late, no matter how much you still hurt, and how much you are still paying—will always be paying—for what happened, there is nothing you can do.
All laws, except the most heinous like murder, have a time limit. Known as the statute of limitations, this time limit determines the window of opportunity for bringing suit against someone for wrongdoing. Different wrongs have different limits, and different states have different limits for the same wrongs. In the case of personal injury in the state of California, the time limit is two years, with a couple exceptions.
Additional time is afforded to an individual who suffers the injury while a minor, in which case the statute of limitations does not start to run until the person turns 18.
Additional time is also afforded if you are not aware of the injury immediately, in which case you have one year from the time that the injury is, or should have been, discovered. This means that if you have abdominal pain after surgery, you have one year from the date that you first find out that the doctor left bandages inside your surgical site to bring suit against him for the personal injury. It is important, however, to be proactive and investigate what is happening and what you are feeling: if you don’t go to the doctor to figure out what is happening, for example, your statute of limitations may run before you realize it.
Understanding your legal rights can be hard, especially the complicated legal framework you are working within. Suffering an injury is hard enough without trying to learn how to navigate the legal process yourself. Get in touch with an attorney as soon as possible to help you understand and figure out your rights when you have been injured. If you were injured in the past it might not be too late to get restitution for your injury.
For expert legal advice about your severe injury lawsuit, call the Alexander Law Group at 888.777.1776 or use our online contact form. Delays can hurt your case, so please don’t wait.
