One of the most common questions that our experienced Virginia personal injury attorneys receive is whether there are time limitations within which they are required to file a lawsuit vindicating their rights to seek compensation from whoever was responsible for causing those injuries. Often times, a person will be injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, such as if you are involved in a motor vehicle accident and another driver who is carelessly operating his or her vehicle plows into the back of your vehicle, causing you to sustain serious injuries as a result. The law protects your ability to seek compensation from someone who is legally responsible for causing your injuries in a scenario such as this, but also seeks to give the tortfeasor, the wrongdoer whose carelessness or negligence injured you, some finality as to when they can expect to be sued over the incident in which you were injured. Therefore, in most circumstances, you do not have forever in order to file a lawsuit seeking compensation for your injuries and other damages from that individual as a result of the scenario in which you were injured. Instead, Virginia law sets a time period within which you are required to file a lawsuit seeking compensation for those injuries.
A statute of limitations is the time period after an accident or incident in which you were injured within which you must file a lawsuit seeking compensation for your injuries. In Virginia, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two (2) years from the date of the incident in which you were injured. This means that, if you were injured in a motor vehicle accident on March 1, 2016, you would need to file any lawsuit related to that motor vehicle accident on or before March 1, 2018, or within two years of the date of the accident in which you were injured. If you do not, then the person that injured you may be able to argue that your lawsuit should be barred by the statute of limitations because you filed your lawsuit too late.
This two-year rule is not absolute, however, so if there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from learning that it was the negligence of someone else that caused your injuries, then a judge may be willing to extend the limitations period for filing your lawsuit. For example, if you were injured in a hit and run accident in which the identity is discovered four years after the accident, the Court may allow you to argue that the limitations period should be extended because you and your attorney were unable to discover the identity of the party that injured you through no fault of your own.
Contact the Experienced Virginia Personal Injury Attorneys at Kalfus & Nachman if You or Someone You Love Has Been Injured in Virginia
Given the fairly strict two year statute of limitations applicable to Virginia personal injury claims, it is important that you contact an experienced Virginia personal injury attorney as soon as possible after the scenario in which you were injured. Our experienced Virginia personal injury attorneys have recovered millions in compensation for our clients who have been injured due to someone else’s negligence.
If you live in the Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach or Roanoke, Virginia, areas and have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, then please contact Kalfus & Nachman PC by phone today at (855) 880-8163 or through the form on this page to schedule a free consultation regarding your particular situation.