Personal Injury Lawyer
If you are pursuing an injury claim, whether you are working with the insurance company or you’re using a personal injury lawyer to go to court, you are going to have some questions and this is fine because this process is very complex and confusing for people who do not do it every single day. Your personal injury lawyer was going to be able to help give you advice about the statute of limitation in your state, the comparative fault rules in your state, but strict liability for specific types of injury cases, whether your state has damage caps are not, how the government is held liable in your state, and much more.
The statute of limitations
The case in each state is that each state has a different time limit, but within whatever time limit in your states that you must fill out your personal injury lawsuit and have filed by. Certain injuries can have different statutes of limitations, therefore, you should talk to a personal injury lawyer if you are uncertain about the statute of limitation and how it may affect your case, when it begins and much more. Every state has a statute of limitations for personal injury cases. The statute begins on the date of the accident or the injury. Missing this deadline means that you cannot file your case outside of the three year window, barring an exception to this rule.
So if you’re in a car accident in April 2020, and you wish to file a personal injury suit, you would have until April 2023 to do so. Attempting to file a personal injury lawsuit after April 2023, would most likely see your case be dismissed unless there are exemplary exceptions to your case that the court recognizes and therefore grants you an extension.
Comparative fault in Washington
Sometimes you are partially at fault for causing your own accident and your own injuries. Comparative fault recognizes this by lowering the amount that you should receive maximum from the judge by the amount you are determined to be held liable for your accident. This ensures that nobody is being overpaid or underpaid, and that you have to accept the consequences for your actions and how they played in your own accident case.
So if you are compensated $40,000, but you are determined to be 40% at fault, then you are going to have that $40,000 reduced by 40% or $16000. This $16000 would be removed, leaving you to receive $24,000.
Obviously this is applied to your lawsuit if it makes it all the way to court, and goes to trial, because the court is the ones who were required to apply comparative negligence in awarding damages to anyone that comes through their court system for a personal injury case. But even if you are only involved in settlement talk, you should not be surprised if your insurance is raised and your insurance adjuster dealing with your case raises the idea of comparative fault.
Insurance companies do not like paying out money because that is money that they lose, and if they can get comparative fault approved and accepted by the court then that is money they are not paying out.
