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Who Has The Legal Ability To File An Injury Claim?

One of the most basic questions a personal injury lawyer often has to address is whether a client has the right to pursue a claim or suit. If you're not sure whether you can, here are a few things to look at. A lawyer can advise as to whether you have a valid case to pursue based on these factors.

Standing

The ability to file a claim and have others take it seriously from a legal viewpoint is called standing. This means that a court would recognize your right to ask it for its help in sorting out the matter.

In personal injury law, the folks most likely to have standing are the direct victims of an incident. The next strongest group in terms of standing are parents of minors. Much less common are cases brought by legal guardians of adult dependents. Spouses also have similarly strong rights to sue.

The rarest scenario involves a deceased person's estate. If someone died of their injuries, the surviving family members will likely follow with a wrongful death claim. However, some folks die from unrelated issues. In those circumstances, the estate would pursue the claim as if nothing happened to the deceased. A major exception would be that most forward-facing compensation would likely be wiped out.

Serious Medical Injuries

Notably, a claimant or plaintiff must have substantial injuries. This means that a medical professional checked the person out and determined they needed care. Likewise, the injuries had to be bad enough to impose a care requirement.

Depending on the circumstances, this can get very involved. You may have to get reports from doctors. Extreme cases might involve exploratory surgeries to see what happened.

Minor injuries won't cut it. A claim has to be grounded in some injury that likely cost you thousands of dollars to deal with. You'll have to document medical bills and drug expenses.  You may also present reports from first responders.

Timing

Most states limit the recovery of compensation by imposing a statutory limit. This means you only have so much time to file a case. You'll note that this does not mean you have to wrap things up in time. It simply means the complaining side must send an official notice to the defendant so they can prepare.

Usually, a state has a statute of limitations between two and three years. If you don't beat this time limit, a judge will probably throw out your case. Some exceptions are made for people with special needs, particularly when a case involves sexual abuse or exposure to chemicals.