Hi. My name is Zachary Cole with Probinsky & Cole. I’m going to talk a little bit about how long you might have to file a lawsuit if you’ve been involved in an accident or another case of negligence or wrongful death.
So in an automobile accident or just a case of normal negligence, that is a four-year statute of limitations and what that means is you don’t have to have the lawsuit finished or collect your settlement or go to trial by the four years. You just have to file the lawsuit by that four-year deadline.
In a wrongful death case, it’s half of that. It’s two years and it’s the date of the death. So if somebody is involved in an accident and they pass away maybe a week or a month or half a year later, that’s what gets the statute of limitations running in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Medical malpractice is shorter as well. It’s two years on medical malpractice. It’s also to the date you filed the notice of intent. So you don’t have to file the lawsuit by the two-year deadline. It’s just filing the notice of intent.
In a medical malpractice case, you have to run through a pre-suit process. You have to hire an expert to support your claim before a court will allow you to file that claim in court.
So it’s important especially in medical negligence cases to get started as soon as possible because it takes time to hire experts and for them to review all the medical records and bring everything together and do the investigation in the case.
Also in medical negligence cases, the two-year statute of limitations can be extended to two years from the date you discovered or should have discovered the injury that you incurred from whatever negligent act or omission was committed by the healthcare professional.
If you or someone you know has been involved in incidents in medical negligence, we’re always here to talk. Our consultations are free. Please give us a call at 941-371-8800. Thank you.
