Statute of Limitations for Pennsylvania Personal Injury Claims

    PHILADELPHIA, PA, November 02, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- If you have suffered a serious personal injury because of another party's recklessness or neglect, you have a limited window of time to file a claim and recover compensation for your losses. This window is called the "statute of limitations." Each state has its own statute of limitations that governs when a personal injury lawsuit can be filed in court.

In the state of Pennsylvania, personal injury victims generally have two years from the date the injury occurred to file a case.

The Discovery Rule

Pennsylvania allows for an exception to the two-year filing window: the Discovery Rule. Under this legal rule, the two-year "clock" on your personal injury claim does not start ticking until the moment when you discover you have suffered an injury. This is an important and necessary rule, since many types of injuries do not show symptoms until much later in a victim's life.

For example, a traumatic brain injury sustained in a car accident may have been misdiagnosed as a different condition, or gone unrecognized for years. When a victim starts showing signs of memory loss, impaired cognitive function, and behavioral problems several years later, it is often the first time they become aware there is a problem at all.

This delay in discovery must be considered "reasonable" by the court in order to be valid. For instance, if a doctor leaves a temporary bandage in a patient's abdomen after surgery, and the patient experiences abdominal pain after the surgery but does not seek medical attention, their attempt to file a medical malpractice lawsuit years later may be barred.

Other State-Specific Personal Injury Laws

Pennsylvania operates under a few other state-specific laws that can affect your personal injury claim, including:

- Comparative negligence - This a type of joint liability, meaning if you were partially liable for your injuries, the amount of damages you can recover will be reduced based on your portion of fault. Additionally, if multiple defendants are liable for a victim's losses, they must each pay based on their attributed portion of fault.
- No-fault car insurance - Under this type of insurance, you can receive benefits regardless of who is at fault for your accident. No-fault car insurance is also sometimes referred to as Personal Injury Protection (PIP).
- Disabilities - The statute of limitations is extended for children under the age of 18, or for people with a mental illness that renders them incapable of initiating legal action on their own. The counting of time will be resumed after a child reaches the age of majority (18), or after the disability has been removed.

If you have further questions about the state of limitations for personal injury claims in Pennsylvania, please visit the website of the experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorneys at Wapner, Newman, Wigrizer, Brecher & Miller today at www.wnlaw.com.

# # #