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What is a statute of limitations and how does it apply to your case?
When you or your loved one suffered an injury or illness, you turned to medical professionals for care and healing. What you got instead was additional suffering due to medical malpractice. It’s not right. It’s not fair. And someone deserves to pay.
Unfortunately, if you don’t file a complaint against the persons responsible for your or your loved one’s injury within a certain amount of time, you could lose your ability to bring them to justice. Every state has a “statute of limitations” that prevents lawsuits from being filed after a certain amount of time has passed. While it may not sound fair that claims expire after a certain amount of time, it actually is a way of ensuring that your claim is filed before evidence of the wrong against you is lost or loses it’s strength. Wounds heal, memories fade, and medical records are not an adequate replacement – if they are even accurate. Filing your claim as soon as possible is the best way to ensure you will be able to get compensation. It also may prevent the parties that injured you and your loved one from making the same mistakes again and injuring more people.
In New Jersey, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice is 2 years, and in New York, the statute of limitations for medical malpractice is 2.5 years. However, this does not mean that you cannot recover if your injury is older than that. There are many different rules that apply in medical malpractice cases and that lengthen the amount of time you have to file your case. Because there are so many different rules, the best way to figure out if you have a valid claim is to speak to an experienced medical malpractice attorney about you or your loved one’s injury.
The attorneys at Nagel Rice LLP have years of experience dealing with medical malpractice claims in both New Jersey and New York. Our Essex County attorneys can be reached at (973)618-0400.