DUI Accident Statute of Limitations
The reason may vary from negligence, to part malfunctions, to drunk driving.
However, the latter has the most occurrences considering that a lot of men and women today frequent waterholes.
At times, they would just grab a bottle of alcoholic drink whenever they have problems.
Before they realize everything though, they have already sped off the road and have hit a pedestrian, a bystander, or another vehicle on the road.
Persons who get injured from a DUI accident have a right to file a claim for damages or seek compensation from those who were responsible for the injury.
They can always seek a lawyer who could help them in filing the proper lawsuit in court.
However, lawyers are not the type to do ambulance chasing and offer their services to those who got injured in accidents.
In fact, this is considered unethical in the profession.
Hence, it now becomes the responsibility of the injured party to seek out the right lawyer and in the ample time.
The timing of the filing of the lawsuit is crucial in guaranteeing that you can receive compensation for your injury.
It is always best to immediately seek the help of a lawyer from the moment that the accident happened, so that the lawyer may file the appropriate lawsuit and claim for damages.
If these are not done within two years from the date of the accident, the statute of limitations would be up and you, as the victim, would be facing the possibility of your case being dismissed.
The disastrous effect would be your inability to claim for damages or receive any form of compensation, even if you were an innocent victim.
In certain states, the statute of limitations is two years, and a DUI accident law firm knows about this.
So they could inform you ahead of time that you need to file the case at the earliest possible period before the statute of limitations is up.
In special cases wherein you might have been a victim of a DUI accident but the injuries you suffered didn't have any external symptoms, then the rule of discovery would follow.
This means that the statute of limitations would start running from the day that your injury was discovered.
It must be proven however, that the injury was the effect of the DUI accident that you figured in before.
DUI accident lawsuits have certain protocols to follow and one of this is determining whether the injury was brought about by the DUI accident or not.
This is easy if the day after the accident happened; you immediately sought out the help of a lawyer and filed the proper lawsuit.
However, if you waited for quite some time, and any external manifestations of an injury were gone, the burden of proof would lie heavily in your hands.