What Is The Statute Of Limitations In Chicago Personal Injury Cases
You have the right to sue someone for a monetary claim if you have been injured in an accident or lost a loved one.
The right is not valid forever, though.
You have to act on your injury claims as soon as possible to get the best possible results.
If you delay lodging the claim, the defendant party will no longer be responsible for appearing at the trial. But, how long is too long?
Especially when you are in Chicago, you should find out all about the statute of limitations in their personal injury cases because your claim won’t last much longer if you don’t take action right away.
So, let’s find it out.
What Is The Statute Of Limitations In Chicago Personal Injury Cases?
The statute of limitation in a Chicago personal injury claim is 2 years. Starting from the date of the commencement of the injury, the 2 years timeframe is calculated.
However, the statute differs for different types of personal injury claims, such as it may take time for an individual to show any sign of injury when he was misdiagnosed or mis-operated by the doctors.
Thus, it becomes a medical malpractice case, and the statute of limitation is slightly longer there.
The timeframe is still 2 years.
However, it becomes valid starting from the date of the injury or when you become reasonably aware of the injury.
What Is A Personal Injury Claim?
When you suffer an injury for no fault of your own, you tend to file a personal injury claim.
It can put your family members under a lot of stress because you are unable to work for months, and on top of that, your medical bill keeps on increasing. The amount of stress you face in such a claim is tragic, and if you don’t get the right compensation, that just becomes worse.
The personal injury lawyers at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard are experts in handling such claims. Click here and get familiarized with their process.
Their attorneys focus on handling personal injury cases for all kinds of clients in Chicago and give them personalized attention and the strong legal representation they deserve.
Why Is The Time Frame Limited To File The Case In Chicago?
You may ask yourself why the state of Illinois imposed a timeframe for you to file for the case. It is because as time passes, it becomes more and more difficult to prove whose fault it was in the accident.
The difficulty keeps on increasing over time because the evidence tends to be lost or corrupted.
In fact, the parties who were at fault may dispose of evidence and destroy all records and documents of the incident so that it doesn’t come back to them ever.
One of the more genuine reasons why there’s a time limit to file the case is because, with each passing day, people’s memories start to fade away. As a result, nothing proves to be more solid evidence than an eyewitness in the eyes of the law.
You must have hard evidence to prove that the other party was at fault if you want them to pay the compensation amount.
The more time that passes between the incident and the commencement of the claim, the more difficult it becomes to collect hard evidence.
Moreover, the defendant will have to be constantly worried about being sued if the statute of limitation isn’t applicable.
Does The Discovery Rule Impact Your Claim?
It is not possibly reasonable for someone to find out the actual cause of one’s injury or to discover that one has been injured if years have passed in between.
As the statute of limitation in Chicago is limited to 2 years, if you cross the timeframe, it will be impossible for you to get the financial restitution you deserve.
The discovery rule is detrimental to these claims because if the injury was not discovered right away, the clock runs out, and you may never get to claim the compensation.
You can bend the rule in some instances if your injury symptoms don’t appear right away.
However, the scope of the discovery rule is also limited, and you must have compelling evidence to prove that you had sufficient reasons not to launch the claim right away.
FAQs
1: How Far Back Can You Claim Personal Injury?
Ans: You may often find people asking others if it’s too late to lodge a personal injury claim. However, if you look at the standard timeframe of the personal injury statute of limitations, you can claim compensation for something that happened as far as 3 years back. Section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980 also sets the timeframe as 3 years.
2: Can You Claim Injury After 5 Years?
Ans: The timeframe to file a personal injury claim can extend as long as 5 years only if the injury symptoms begin and don’t appear in the set timeframe. It happens mostly in cases of medical malpractice claims because the doctor may have misdiagnosed or mis-operated on a patient, and its symptoms don’t appear right away.
3: What Is The Statute Of Limitation For A Lawsuit In Illinois?
Ans: The statute of limitation for a lawsuit in Illinois is 7 years. Nevertheless, Illinois law entails a judgment creditor to revive the enforcement action within 20 years from the date the verdict was announced. It means the timeframe is more for other lawsuits than a personal injury lawsuit in the state of Illinois.
Putting It All Together
There you go.
Now you know the statute of limitations in Chicago personal injury cases, and once you are certain of the timeframe, you can proceed accordingly to get the compensation you deserve.
The last date you can make a claim is the claim-limitation date, and if you don’t make a claim until then, it becomes statute-barred automatically.
So, you should try to launch the claim within the timeframe if you are a Chicago resident or you reside anywhere within Illinois.
If you need more information on how to lodge the claim, you can ping us in the comment section below.
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