Every civil lawsuit for any type of injury case is governed by a statute of limitations. In most cases the statute time clock starts to run following the personal injury accident. The statute of limitations in some states is as short as ONE year and in others as long as FIVE years from the accident or injury. Trying to figure out the exact date that your filing deadline begins or ends is not always very simple. In cases in which the injury is to a child or involves a birth injury like cerebral palsy, the deadlines of a child’s cause of action for the injuries may be a different date than the parents’s filing deadline for medical expenses and other causes of action in a lawsuit. In cases involving diseases like silicosis, AML leukemia, mesothelioma, or asbestos cancer or others, the filing date doesn’t normally start when your exposure happened which could be years or decades before, but starts to run as early as the date of your medical symptoms or medical diagnosis. In cases involving liability or negligence against a governmental agency like a city, state, or federal entity, then statutory legal notice requirements and shortened negligent defendant it is critical that an experience trial lawyer find out all the facts and history of your injury, background facts, work history, and medical diagnosis to help determine when your lawsuit needs to be filed in order to protect your rights and allow you to collect the monetary compensation and legal remedies you deserve.
Just as important as the filing date for the lawsuit is the preservation of the evidence to prove the case. Whether it be by an accident reconstructionist expert hired to survey and photograph the scene of an accident, industrial explosion or even an accident at home. Photographic evidence is vital to proving your case. Additionally if the accident or injury involves a defective car, truck, seat belt, airbag, ladder, forklift, tire, jack stand, pressure cooker, or even a bottle of medicine, the product must be found, stored, and preserved as evidence for the trial. Without the product or evidence, often it may be impossible to prove the case or defect. We can assist in all phases of product and evidence retrieval and storage. Call us 1-800-883-9858.