Tolling and the Statute of Limitations

Tolling a statute of limitations is often very important for people involved in personal injury cases. We’ve blogged about the statute of limitations in personal injury cases before, but it’s a good idea to go over the basics. Essentially, a statute of limitations is a ticking clock that applies to your case. After you suffer an injury, you have to file your case within the amount of time specified by your state’s statute of limitations or you are prevented from doing so. With tolling, the time you have to file a lawsuit is effectively extended.

Stopping the Clock

When we talk about tolling the statute of limitations, what we are talking about is putting the statute of limitations ticking clock on pause. Tolling allows people to suspend or delay the statute of limitations time limit. Depending on your circumstances, there can be several reasons why you might be able to pause the statute of limitations and give yourself more time than you would otherwise have to file a lawsuit.

For example, minors who suffer personal injuries cannot file a lawsuit on their own. They have to have an adult guardian, parent, or some other adult file on their behalf. However, if a parent or guardian fails to file a lawsuit in time, the minor is not necessarily out of luck. This is because the statute of limitations is tolled when a minor suffers an injury.

So, let’s say a 16-year-old suffers a personal injury. The child’s parents do not file a lawsuit on behalf of the 16-year-old. A couple of years pass and the child turns 18. In this situation, the statute of limitations clock is tolled or paused and only begins counting down again after the child becomes an adult.

Tolling and Discovery

Similar to tolling is the idea that the statute of limitations clock doesn’t start running until you have discovered your injury. For example, let’s say that you had your inflamed appendix removed. During that surgery, your doctor mistakenly left a surgical sponge in your abdomen. However, you had no way of knowing that the sponge was there, and didn’t discover it until three years after your surgery.

In this situation, the statute of limitations clock won’t likely start ticking until you discover the injury. Even though the statute of limitations for medical malpractice in your state might only be two years, you can still file a lawsuit because you didn’t discover the injury until after those two years had passed.

Tolling and Your Case

Tolling is one of those issues that can sometimes be difficult to apply. Every personal injury case is different, and determining what statute of limitations applies will depend on several different factors. Additionally, knowing if the statute of limitations can be tolled, and if so, how that affects your case, is something that only an experienced personal injury attorney can help with. Even if you don’t believe you can still file a case because of the statute of limitations, you should talk to a personal injury attorney in your area for legal advice.

Driving Under The Influence

Long gone are the days when a driver could crack open a beer for the ride home. The practice, which was legal just over a few decades ago, has been prohibited. Open containers of alcohol are now against the law, and the blood-alcohol limits have been restricted. Driving under the influence is no longer acceptable. But old habits sometimes die hard.

Drunk Driving Distinction

Fatal crashes involving drunk drivers occur regularly each year, with almost 200 people dying each year as a result. These accidents are preventable and tragic. Worse, they are tragic at the expense of innocent motorists. More here

Drunk – or drug-impaired — drivers are a hazard to the entire community. Sure, they are a danger to themselves, but it’s the victims — the construction worker coming from a hard hot day on the job, the nurse heading to work for the Graveyard Shift, the local messenger delivering a package — who get hurt. Ordinary people affected by those who don’t care who they endanger looking to have a good time.

When a motorist dies as a result of driving under the influence, the drunk driver must be held responsible. Legal action is the best recourse, with justice coming through either civil action or wrongful death claim. There’s no way to compensate a family for a loss of a loved one in an accident with a drunk driver, but it is some sort of vindication. In addition, if that loved one is, indeed, the construction worker, the nurse, or the messenger, that individual’s income was important to somebody somewhere. The drunk eliminated it. More on this website

Contact a Professional

At our Law Firm, we’re prepared to fight aggressively on behalf of a family suffering a loss at the hands of a drunk driver. Damages may include property damage, damage from lost wages or loss of household, or loss of a spouse. Then there is emotional loss as well as financial loss. We will review your individual case to determine the merits of the litigation. If you’re short on cash after the tragedy, we may be able to help pay your bills now while we fight with insurance companies and drunk drivers’ attorneys.

Insurance companies, with their in-house lawyers, will try to contest the case. They may try to prove their client was not inebriated or wasn’t at fault. Since we focus on drunk driving accidents and car Crashes, we’re prepared to take any case with merit as far as we have to take it. We investigate aggressively and prepare for the smallest detail.

Our Law Firm focuses on car crash litigation and one of our team of dedicated attorneys looks forward to providing you with a consultation, advising you of all your rights, and answering any questions that you may have. In that respect, one of our Law Firm’s lawyers is available for a free consultation and specialized representation all hours of the day or night.

To Contact An Attorney Or Not After An Accident

Wait, don’t get an attorney, see what happens first, see what her company offers. See what his injuries really are. It has only been a few days. He may be fine in 2 weeks, you don’t know yet, you don’t even have his diagnosis.

First, you are only going to get the actual cash value of the vehicle & all new cars instantly depreciate $2-3,000 maybe more the second you drive off the lot. I ALWAYS advise my insureds unless they are putting a big chunk of money down on the car (close to $10,000 at least) to get GAP insurance, it is less than $50 per year on your auto policy (usually for most people in my area). They can always take it off but can’t add it later, it has to be added when the new car is added. You will not get money to pay off the loan from the other carrier, sorry. If you chose to overfinance your car, that is between you & the loan company.

You can ask for lost wages. Car rental cost IS a loss of use. Also, once the car is paid for, the rental car payments will be cut off, so be prepared to go out & get another car when the bank gets paid off.

An attorney will take 30-40% of the settlement, if you can afford that, call one, otherwise wait. Also, the attorney will take all the bills (won’t pay them) and submit them all together to the other carrier which could put the medical bills in collections so be careful of that if you do decide to call an attorney. An attorney will also delay the settlement, ask any claim rep on here (I personally know 2 & they do the same thing), the files with attorneys tend to get worked on after the ones without attorneys.

Others Advice:

PLEASE NOTE; THE INFO BELOW IS BASED ON THE FACT IT APPEARS YOUR HUSBAND IS NOT LIABLE FOR THE ACCIDENT.

IF HE IS FOUND LIABLE, THEN ALL THE MED BILLS, YOUR VALUE ON YOUR CAR MINUS A DEDUCTIBLE WILL BE PAID FROM YOUR INSURANCE POLICY AND THIS IS IF ONLY YOU HAVE THE COVERAGE ON YOUR AUTO POLICY. IF HE IS LIABLE, NO PAIN/SUFFERING, LOST WAGES CAN BE PAID FROM YOUR OWN AUTO INSURANCE POLICY.

NOW IF THE OTHER INSURANCE COMPANY AGREES THEY ARE AT FAULT.

To start, I have been an auto claim adjuster for over 10 years.

What was said is about on the money, it appears they are an insurance agent.

1. You can only get the cash value of your vehicle regardless of how much you owe.

2. You are owed rental if your car is not drivable.

Yes, when your lien is paid, they will take you out of the rental within a day to a couple of days, depends on the insurance company, but be ready and look for a replacement car asap. The fact you have not found a replacement car does not change anything.

3. Medical bills;

if your auto insurance policy has medical payment coverage it is primary and pays 1st; then if you have health insurance, they pay 2nd; any out of pocket or deductibles are your responsibility. keep track of all payments you make;

The other company that is at fault does not, let me repeat, does not pay your medical bills; that is your responsibility to pay; that is the reason you have your auto medical payment coverage pay if you have on your policy or your health insurance. Otherwise, the providers will go after you for collection. The providers don’t care about any settlement with an insurance company, they want their money for services.

4. Attorney

In the next couple of days if not by now, you will get tons of phone calls and letters from attorneys. Ignore them.

Just because they advertise or send great brochures, most of them are just factories and they pay a ton for advertising, which they subtract from any settlement. (they usually charge higher fees; ie 40 to 50% vs the standard 1/3)

as for your injury;

they will request a signed authorization; this will allow them to get copies of the medical bills and all medical reports of the injuries. if your husband had pre-existing injuries, they take off the “value” of his injury. As for lost wages. it has to be verified by the doctor and by his employer. Just because he is off work for a week, does not mean he will be compensated for 1 week; it has to be verified.

Even if you treat for 3 months, some adjusters may not allow all the bills in the settlement; they could question if treatment medically necessary or overtreatment.

We take the medical bills, plus loss of income and add up the totals; we then add on pain/suffering for the total amount of offer we make.

The average time for any offer to be made is around 3 months; that allows for copies from providers, medical reports, etc; like above, we don’t make offers until treatment is complete. So if your husband has 2 months of treatment, then it could be 5 to 6 months before all info received to evaluate a settlement offer.

Now for attorneys:

Wait for any offer; if you believe it does not sound fair, ask the reason on how they came up with it; then if you want to consider getting an attorney for legal advice:

and this is important!

Call an attorney you have hired in the past, say for a divorce, bankruptcy, etc; if they can’t handle it, they will always refer you to a good attorney that can do you well; if you never hired an attorney, ask coworkers, family friends, etc for names. It is always best to hire an attorney someone knows, just like a plumber. (*usually the best attorneys, do not advertise; they don’t advertise since all of their business is referrals from other clients who were satisfied.*)