Personal Injury Lawyer

All states set limitations on the amount of time you need to submit a claim in civil court after you have actually suffered some type of harm. This type of law is called a statute of constraints, and there are different due dates depending on the sort of case you’re submitting.

In California, the statute of restrictions for injury cases offers an injured individual 2 years from the date of the injury to go to court and file a suit versus those who could be at fault. Essentially, if you fail to submit an accident claim within this two-year duration, the court will likely decline to hear your case at any time in the future, and your right to payment will be lost. There are unique situations that may extend the deadline or impact when the statute of limitations “clock” starts to run.

The California statute of limitations for injury cases can be discovered at California Code of Civil Treatment section 335.1.

Claims versus a city, county or California state federal government firm. There is a time limit of six months to file an injury claim against a government entity, and plaintiffs should stick to a strict set of procedural rules. (California Federal government Code section 911.2.) Learn more about injury claims versus a federal government entity.

California Shared Fault Laws

In some injury cases, the defendant might make the argument that the hurt individual is in fact to blame (at least partly) for triggering the underlying accident.

If you do share some level of liability, it can wind up impacting the total amount of settlement you’ll end up receiving from other at-fault persons and businesses.

In shared fault injury cases, California follows a “pure comparative neglect” guideline. In standard terms, the amount of payment you’re entitled to receive will be decreased by an amount that amounts to your percentage of fault for the mishap.

So, let’s state you’re in a vehicle accident where the other chauffeur blatantly ran a stop sign, however you happened to be driving a couple of miles an hour above the published speed limitation at the time. You may share 10 percent of the blame for the mishap, while the other driver is 90 percent at fault. Let’s state your losses (damages) add up to $10,000. How does your shared fault for the accident affect your settlement? Under California’s pure comparative carelessness rule, your compensation will be reduced to $9,000 (or the $10,000 overall minus the $1,000 that represents your share of fault for the accident.).

There are several different aspects to this type of law, as a personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA like the ones at the law offices Barry P. Goldberg can explain.