Statute of Limitations for California Personal Injury Cases

With the recent news swirling around the Cosby drug and sex allegations, many people are asking why these accusers don’t just sue the famed comedian. The answer is that unfortunately, for most of these women, the Statute of Limitations has run on any possible legal claim they could file against their aggressor. It’s a stark reminder that your right to legal relief is not infinite.

If you’ve been wrongfully injured, your first and most important move is to attend to your health. Once your health is tended to, you can make the decision to whether or not to proceed with a lawsuit. If you decide you want to proceed with a lawsuit to recover for your injuries, you’ll definitely need to know and understand the exact timelines according to which your claim must be filed with the courts. This is called the Statute of Limitations for personal injury cases and it does vary among the states.

General Statute of Limitatons

The statute of limitations on personal injury cases in California can be found at California Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 and categorizes the filing of a personal injury claim with the following language:

Within two years: An action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another.

Therefore, in California, an injured person has two (2) years from the date of the injury to go to court and formerly file a lawsuit against the alleged responsible parties. Just as a comparison, Oregon holds the distinction of being the state with the longest statute of limitations — ten years! Unfortunately, Golden State residents are not so lucky. If you fail to show up to the California courts to file your claim within two years of a personal injury, you jeopardize your case and will likely forfeit a hearing and any compensation coming your way.

Extenuating Circumstances – Tolling

Tolling means the clock for the Statute of Limitations is put on pause for some important contingency and will start again once the contingency is over. The most common reason for tolling is due to the claimant being a minor. If the injured party is under 18 years old in the United States, the Statute of Limitations clock will not start to run until the moment they turn 18, then they will have two (2) years to file their personal injury claim(s). The Statute of Limitations can also be tolled for disability, for example, if the claimant is in a coma. The clock will stop running as long as the claimant is disabled. Lastly, the Statute of Limitations can be tolled if you are pursuing other legal claims related to the same injury. So if you are pursuing a workers compensation claim related to the same injury, the clock will stop once you file that claim and will start again after the claim is decided and final. This allows for much more time to file all possible legal claims.

Extenuating Circumstances – Injury newly discovered

Sometimes an injury is not discovered until later. For example, there have been cases where patients of major surgery operations have found medical instruments left inside their body years after the surgery was successfully completed. The courts will not penalize you for not knowing about an injury that was caused by someone else. When a scenario arises in which the injury was not discovered right away, then the injured party has one (1) year from the date the injury was discovered to file a personal injury lawsuit.

Shortened Time to File – Suing a municipality

It is very important to note that if you plan to file a claim against a particular city, county or the California state government, you will only have six (6) months to file your injury claim and you will need to follow the procedures outlined in Cal. Gov’t Code § 911.2.

The golden rule to remember with the Statute of Limitations is that is it the maximum amount of time allowed to file any legal claim in court. To miss this important filing requirement means your injury claim could be forever lost. A personal injury lawyer in Pasadena, California can assist in helping you reach that deadline in accordance with current all California requirements and help keep track of that running clock.