Following a car accident, you may feel overwhelmed and shocked. As you recover from your injuries and trauma, you have to consider other things too. For example – Did the accident because of the other driver’s negligence? If that’s the case, you can file a claim for compensation, to recover your losses and medical bills. To understand the worth of your claim, you may want to talk to car accident attorneys Los Angeles. In this post, we are sharing more on the statute of limitations in California and other relevant aspects worth knowing.
The basics
The statute of limitations basically gives a deadline, within which a person can file a lawsuit against the party at fault. Most states have a statute of limitations, and California is no different. In case of personal injury cases, which extends to car accident lawsuits too, the deadline is two years. There are another factor to consider here- Did the accident result in just injuries (regardless of the severity) or death of a person? If the person just suffered injuries, the clock starts ticking from the date of accident. However, if someone lost their life in an unfortunate car accident, the immediate family can bring a wrongful death lawsuit within two years, from the date of death. The date of a person’s death could be different than the date of accident. For vehicle damage claims, the deadline is 3 years.
What if the lawsuit is not filed in time?
If you have exhausted the period of two years as given by the statute of limitations in California, your case is likely to be refused by the court, except for rare cases. Note that if you were injured in an accident that happened because of a government employee’s neglect in California, you will need to follow specific set of rules, and a notice of the claim must be given within six months.
Do you need a car accident attorney?
In your best interests, it is always wise to talk to a car accident attorney in depth. There are some amazing law firms in LA that can help with filing the insurance claim. In case the matter doesn’t get resolved through negotiations, your car accident attorney can take things to court.
Make sure that you find an attorney who has handled car accident claims in particular, and to know their expertise better, you can ask for references too.
