If you are injured in an accident, you are going to want to get compensation for your injuries. This may be physical, requiring you to pay hospital and doctor’s bills, as well as the costs of rehabilitation. You may also have pain and suffering from your injuries, and psychological harm that requires you to seek the care of a therapist.
Damages can include your lost wages from the time you missed work. It may even include compensation for damage to your loss of consortium with your spouse and your inability to perform certain tasks on a temporary or permanent basis. However, when it comes to filing a personal injury claim, time is of the essence. This is why it is vital that you retain the services of an experienced New Jersey personal injury attorney to represent you. If you don’t follow the operation of the New Jersey Statute of Limitations, you may find your claim is time-barred.
The New Jersey Statute of Limitations
New Jersey has a law called the Statute of Limitations that sets the time period during which a civil action may be brought in many different situations, like property disputes and breach of contract lawsuits. When it comes to personal injury claims, the Statute of Limitations is only two years. This starts running from the date of the accident, except in certain circumstances. So, if you are involved in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, you have two years from the date of the accident to file your case. This is not just lawsuits against the other drivers or the Turnpike Authority if there was a road defect that contributed to the causation of the collision. It also applies to insurance claims as well.
The Types of Cases Covered by the New Jersey Statute of Limitation
The two year period for personal injury claims is fairly broad. It covers personal injuries resulting from car, truck, and motorcycle accidents, as well as those involving pedestrians and bicycles. If a person is injured in a slip-and-fall accident in a store or sidewalk, they will have two years to file a claim. It can even apply to cases of medical malpractice, product liability, wrongful death, and dog bites. If your injury falls into one of these categories, then you are going to want to act quickly to make sure that your claim is not barred by the Statute of Limitations.
The Operation of the Statute of Limitations
The courts in New Jersey adhere to the Statute of Limitations strictly. This means that you could be one day late in filing your claim and end up collecting nothing. If you file a lawsuit after the Statute of Limitations runs, the defendant will file a motion to have your case dismissed with a high probability that it will be granted by the court. Similarly, if you don’t adhere to the two year period in filing an insurance claim, it is very likely that the claim will be denied by the insurance company. This is why you should file a claim as soon as possible after you were injured.
Exceptions to the Statute of Limitations
There are a number of exceptions to the Statute of Limitations. If the injured person is a minor at the time of the accident that caused the injury, then the Statute of Limitations will be considered tolled until the person turns 18 years of age. Tolling means that the two year period stops running. Once the person turns 18, the two year period begins to run and will expire when the person turns 20.
Similarly, if the person is rendered incompetent or incapacitated as the result of the incident, then the Statute of Limitations period will toll until the competency of the person is restored. At that point, the two year period will commence. In situations where the incapacity occurred during the two year period, the remainder of the two year limitation period will begin running upon a restoration of competency. So, if six months passed when the person become incapacitated, he or she will have 18 months left to file a claim once competency has returned.
The final exception is called the “discovery rule.” This applies to latent injuries that were not discovered at the time of the incident giving rise to the claim. In this situation, the two year period begins to run when the injury was discovered or should have been discovered.
What To Do After Getting Injured in an Accident
Getting injured in an accident of any kind can be a very traumatic experience. The New Jersey Statute of Limitations can add insult to injury by barring your personal injury claim if you do not file it before the expiration of the two-year period. The experienced personal injury attorneys at The Cassidy Law Firm, LLC, can help you by making sure your claim and any lawsuits are filed before the running of the Statute of Limitations. Call us today or complete our contact form for a free consultation.