If you’re injured as a result of a car accident, you should make a claim. You need to hire a lawyer and you need to have a thorough investigation and analysis of your claim prepared so you understand who you need to sue, what the benefits of suing those individual defendants are and what they […]
Car accident statute of limitations
If you’re injured as a result of a car accident, you should make a claim.
You need to hire a lawyer and you need to have a thorough investigation and analysis of your claim prepared so you understand who you need to sue, what the benefits of suing those individual defendants are and what they bring to the litigation.
But what if you haven’t filed a lawsuit immediately, you can still do so:
How long after a car accident you can sue depends on which state the accicent has happened.
Different states have different statutes of limitation for car accident statutes:
The shortest time period when you can file a car accident lawsuit is in Louisiana (1 year) and the longest is in Maine, Minnesota and North Dakota (6 years)
| States | Statute of Limitations for Car Accident Lawsuits |
| Louisiana | 1 year |
| Tennessee | 1 year |
| Alabama | 2 years |
| Alaska | 2 years |
| Arizona | 2 years |
| California | 2 years |
| Connecticut | 2 years |
| Delaware | 2 years |
| Georgia | 2 years |
| Hawaii | 2 years |
| Idaho | 2 years |
| Illinois | 2 years |
| Indiana | 2 years |
| Iowa | 2 years |
| Kansas | 2 years |
| Kentucky | 2 years |
| Nevada | 2 years |
| New Jersey | 2 years |
| Ohio | 2 years |
| Oklahoma | 2 years |
| Oregon | 2 years |
| Pennsylvania | 2 years |
| Puerto Rico | 2 years |
| Texas | 2 years |
| U.S. Virgin Islands | 2 years |
| Virginia | 2 years |
| West Virginia | 2 years |
| Arkansas | 3 years |
| Colorado | 3 years |
| Maryland | 3 years |
| Massachusetts | 3 years |
| Michigan | 3 years |
| Mississippi | 3 years |
| Montana | 3 years |
| New Hampshire | 3 years |
| New Mexico | 3 years |
| New York | 3 years |
| North Carolina | 3 years |
| Rhode Island | 3 years |
| South Carolina | 3 years |
| South Dakota | 3 years |
| Vermont | 3 years |
| Washington | 3 years |
| Washington D.C. | 3 years |
| Wisconsin | 3 years |
| Florida | 4 years |
| Nebraska | 4 years |
| Utah | 4 years |
| Wyoming | 4 years |
| Missouri | 5 years |
| Maine | 6 years |
| Minnesota | 6 years |
| North Dakota | 6 years |
Video: Can someone sue after a car accident is settled?
If you’ve settled a car accident and you signed the general release, you cannot sue. Because if you’ve read the general release, it says you’re releasing the defendants from all claims known and unknown, from when the accident happened in perpetuity.
So unless there’s something unusual – we’ve had a few things that were unusual that allowed us to get out of the settlement, allowed us to go to court and have the court vacate the settlement.
Generally speaking, 99.9 percent of the time you sign that general release you are not going to be able to sue and unfortunately we’ve had clients that signed a general release before they had a lawyer and that insurance adjuster for the defendant took advantage of that client.
If I remember correctly, there was one case that was very tragic where the injuries were just horrific and the insurance company gave such a ridiculous offer that when we went to court, the court said that the amount of the offer was just so insignificant compared to the catastrophic nature of the injury that it was unconscionable and vacated the settlement.
Then we were able to negotiate a reasonable settlement for the client thereafter. But it’s a very rare event and that’s why you need to hire a lawyer as soon as you can when you when you get involved in an accident because those insurance adjusters will jump on you and take advantage of you every single day.
Depending on the state you are filing your car accident lawsuit in, you have 1-6 years to sue someone for a personal injury which came as a result of a car accident. In most states, the clock starts ticking once you discovered your injury (or should have discovered when exercising due diligence)
If you’ve settled a car accident and you signed the general release, you cannot sue. Because if you’ve read the general release, it says you’re releasing the defendants from all claims known and unknown, from when the accident happened in perpetuity.
If you are involved in a car accident, contact Parker Waichman immediately calling 1-800-YOUR-LAWYER (1-800-968-7529) for a free case review today.
More on accident lawsuits:
