When seeking compensation for your injuries, you face time limits and deadlines and missing them can cost you your case and your right to pursue compensation. Each state has responded differently to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have closed their courts temporarily. Some have extended the statute of limitations and other deadlines. Closures are likely to be expanded and extended, and existing extensions on deadlines may be updated to reflect longer periods of stay at home orders and states of emergency. But you cannot count on your deadlines being extended without talking to an experienced injury attorney in your state about your unique case.
Statutes of Limitations and Repose
The statute of limitations is the deadline for filing your lawsuit. Each state sets their own statute of limitations, and, in many states, they are different for different types of cases. For instance, in Arkansas, the statute of limitations for most types of personal injury such as car accidents, is three years but the statute of limitations for medical malpractice is only two years.
The clock starts to run on the date you were injured. In some cases, the discovery rule applies, which means that the clock starts running on the date that you discovered or should have discovered your injury or that the defendant caused your injury.
The statute of repose is a deadline that can cut your time even shorter. Many states have statutes of repose in medical malpractice and product liability cases. In product liability the statute of repose typically refers to the age of the product or the date that it left the possession of the manufacturer. So, if you were injured by a defective product in a state where the statute of limitations is three years and the statute of repose is 12 years and the product was 10 years old when your injury occurred, you would only have two years to file your lawsuit rather than three.
To find out how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect your case, please search our directory for an experienced injury attorney in your state.
