If you’re lucky in your car accident, it was only a minor fender bender and you escaped without injury. However, car accidents can cause serious bodily and property damage. In these situations, one needs to seek medical attention, talk to police officers, file an insurance claim and may even considering filing a lawsuit to recover for medical expenses and lost wages.
After an accident, filing a lawsuit might be the furthest thing from your mind. You may not be someone who has ever considered filing a suit, as you may not think of yourself as the litigious type. However, as time goes on and your medical bills pile up, you may reconsider your position. Civil lawsuits exist to help people who suffer from injuries to find the compensation they need to move forward with their lives. When someone is injured due to the fault of another, it is unfair to expect him or her to foot the expense of all their medical bills and ongoing suffering.
In these situations, you do have some time to decide whether or not you want to file a personal injury claim. Governed by a statute of limitations, civil claims can be filed any time for a period of years following an accident. For claims of negligence relating to a car accident, a person has four years from the date of the incident in order to file a claim for damages. A driver, passenger or pedestrian can bring this type of action as long as he or she suffered injuries as a result of the accident.
If a person was killed in a car accident, his or her family may bring a wrongful death claim against the responsible driver. These claims have a shorter statute of limitations and must be filed within two years following the decedent’s death. The date of the accident and the date of death do not need to be the same if the decedent did not die right away.
If you were injured or lost a loved one as a result of an accident with a negligent driver, you have the right to seek monetary damages. Check with the Bradenton car accident attorneys at Goldman, Babboni, Fernandez, Murphy & Walsh to make sure you are within the statute of limitations and ask questions about filing a claim.