If you have been injured by a product that you’ve used and you want to sue in order to recover the damages that you’ve sustained, you would have to file the claim within a certain time frame in order to ensure that everything is handled properly. The legal term for the time limit is called the statute of limitations and it is particularly important when it comes to product liability claims.
Regardless of where you bring your case, you should make sure that you file the claim as soon as it is possible. At the very least, you should be well aware of the deadline that you have to keep. If you fail to file your claim within the given time limit, the judge is most likely going to discharge your claim on the grounds of limitation expiry.
Statute of Limitations
This is undoubtedly one of the most important things that you have to understand. In certain defective product cases, determining the exact time when the limit starts to run is actually rather straightforward. For example, if you have damaged yourself using a defective microwave oven, the time of the injury is going to be the starting point. It’s rather obvious.
However, certain injuries are far more complicated and rather difficult to detect and they might not even be detected months or in some cases even years after the injury had actually occurred. For instance, if a defective chemical product produces certain fumes which damage your lungs overtime, you might not be able to discover the problem for quite a long time. In cases of the kind, it is important to know when the terms under the statute of limitations start to run so that you can timely file your defective product claim.
There are two overly common rules:
· When the injury took place
These cases encompass all the issues which were showcased with the first example. They are rather straightforward and there is nothing complicated to be considered here.
· When the injury was discovered
In order to prevent potential complications, the legislative authority has decided that it’s convenient enough to ensure that the case is handled as per the legal standards. If the injury manifests itself overtime, it is only reasonable to ensure that the terms as per the statute of limitations start to run when the injury was actually discovered. It’s as simple as that.
In any case, as you can see, there are quite a lot of things which need to be handled. This is the main reason for which you should thoroughly consider working with a personal injury lawyer should you find yourself in a situation of the kind. Not only are they experienced, but over the years they have dealt with all sorts of injury cases and understand how to go about such cases.