It would be pretty shocking to find out that you’re being sued by someone you accidentally hurt many, many years ago. How would you even be expected to remember what happened and defend yourself from their accusation? Could they even ask for a fair amount of compensation for an injury so long ago? For this reason, each state has statutes of limitations that prevent a lawsuit from being filed after a certain amount of time has passed.
In Tennessee, the personal injury statute of limitation is only one year. Most states allow you to take two or three years to decide how or if you want to create a civil lawsuit against the person that caused you harm or to suffer damages, so this one year statute is pretty restrictive. Image that someone hurt you in a car accident on January 1st, 2017; if you didn’t bring a claim against them by January 1st, 2018, the court would throw out any claim created after that date, effectively barring you from ever receiving compensation for your injuries.
Should You Rush with Such a Limited Statute?
Your first thought after learning that Tennessee only affords injured parties one year to take action might be that you need to file as soon as possible after being in an accident. While this is not inherently a bad idea, it is not necessarily the best choice. The main reason you might want to wait just a little bit is to ensure that your medical examinations have given you a clear idea of how much your recuperation is going to cost you. Go to the doctor once and sue for that initial amount and you could short yourself out of tens of thousands of dollars of necessary damages, especially if your injury requires rehabilitation or caused a lifelong condition.
What you should do immediately is seek out the help of a professional Memphis personal injury attorney. At the Law Office of Stephen R. Leffler, P.C., you can find a tea of attorneys with more than 30 years of combined legal experience and multiple multimillion dollar case results under their belts. Get that caliber of service on your side by contacting our firm and asking for an initial case analysis.