What is the Statute of Limitations in Escondido Personal Injury Cases?

Whether you were injured in an accident in Escondido or in another area of North County San Diego, you may be thinking about filing a claim so that you can seek financial compensation to cover your losses. After many types of accidents, from motor vehicle crashes to slips and falls or other premises liability injuries, the person injured has extensive medical bills they need to pay in addition to falling behind on regular bills because they cannot work due to the injury. In California, there are multiple ways that an injured person may be able to obtain compensation — money to cover hospital bills and lost wages, as well as money for subjective losses that are more difficult to quantify, like pain and suffering or the psychological harm associated with disfigurement.

Yet, in order to actually get any of this compensation, you will need to pay attention to deadlines. Often, you will see deadlines described in terms of the “statute of limitations.” What is the statute of limitations, and how much time does it give someone to file an injury claim?

Understanding the “Statute of Limitations”

The term “statute of limitations” refers to the time window in which a person or entity can file a lawsuit. This term is used in civil law (the area of the law in which personal injury cases are filed) as well as criminal law, and there are different statutes of limitations for different types of cases. Within civil law, statutes of limitations vary depending on the type of legal harm the injured person has incurred.

In general, you can think of a statute of limitations as a clock. Once the time window for filing a claim opens up, you can think of that moment as when the clock starts “ticking.” The clock will continue ticking until the time window is up. Once that time window is up and the clock has run out, any possible claim a party could have filed will have become “time-barred.” A time-barred claim is one that is no longer permitted because of the amount of time that has passed. There are some instances in which a statute of limitations can be paused (known as “tolling” a statute of limitations), but you should never count on the statute of limitations being paused in your case.

What is the Statute of Limitations for My Personal Injury Case?

If you are planning to file an insurance claim after an Escondido personal injury accident, the state’s statute of limitations does not apply to that claim. However, it is important to remember that you might need to file a lawsuit if an insurance payout is insufficient, so you should keep a close eye on the statute of limitations.

For most personal injury lawsuits, California law has a two-year statute of limitations. There are, however, some types of injury cases where an initial claim must be filed much sooner — within six months or one year — in cases involving public property, government parties, or similar.

Contact a Escondido Personal Injury Lawyer

To make sure you file your California personal injury lawsuit on time, you should get in touch with an experienced Rancho Bernardo personal injury attorney at our firm as soon as possible. Contact the North County Injury Lawyers today for assistance with your case.

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