ABA Family Legal Guide

Personal Injury

The Basics of Personal Injury Law

Does a personal injury lawsuit have to be filed within a certain amount of time?

Every state has certain time limits, called statutes of limitations, which govern the period during which you must file a personal injury lawsuit. In some states, you may have as little as one year to file a lawsuit from the date the accident occurred. If you miss the statutory deadline for filing a case, your case is thrown out of court. (As explained on page 535, limitations in medical malpractice cases are often calculated differently.) For this reason, it is important to talk with a lawyer as soon as you receive or discover an injury.