Some folks are lucky to have never needed to contact an attorney. Other folks have had something terrible happen to them or a loved one as a result of medical services, and end up calling our office. Most often, the calls that we get are relatively soon after the horrible thing has happened. But others, for a variety of reasons, don’t call immediately. Sometimes they are grieving a death. Other times, there is too much going on in their lives and they forget the possibility a lawyer can help them.
When folks don’t call immediately, they often don’t learn that there are time limits on when they can bring a claim for medical malpractice. And sometimes when they do call, it’s too late – they are forever barred from filing a lawsuit and attempting to get justice for what has happened to them.
These time limits are called Statutes of Limitation. In Washington State, these statutes describe when various types of lawsuits must be brought. The general rule is that a lawsuit must be brought within three years of the alleged negligence, but there are many exceptions to that general rule.
The purpose of this blog post is not to describe all of these exceptions, but rather to briefly discuss why we have these rules. Why are there limits? Why can’t claims be brought years after the negligence?
The main reason I see is that it’s unfair to defendants. Imagine going about your life, unaware that anything you did allegedly was wrongful, or that it caused harm to another. Then one day someone comes up to you, confirms who you are, and hands you legal documents – a complaint filed in Superior Court alleging you have done something wrong a decade ago, and this wrongdoing has caused harm to the person filing the complaint.
With so much time having past, you may be at quite a disadvantage. Evidence proving your innocence may have been destroyed. Certainly, your memory of things has faded with each passing year. And as a result, you are feeling the unfairness of having to address these allegations.
So the statutes of limitation are time limits. Unfortunately, they not only vary by type of claim, but also from state to state, or if it is a claim against a federal employee. And regular folks who have been fortunate to avoid lawyers in their past often don’t know about these time limits. Why would they? Or they have been given faulty information, by a friend or perhaps even the internet (no, the time limit does NOT start running after you have completed treatment for whatever injury you suffered. No, the time limit does NOT give you three years from the time you discovered you may be the victim of malpractice).
Certainly, exceptions help to blunt some of the possible unfairness to injured people. But not always.
