There are several reasons why it is important to contact a Maryland auto accident lawyer as soon as possible after you have been involved in a motor vehicle accident. One of these is the statute of limitations.
An Ancient Concept
In personal injury law (known in legal terminology as torts), the victim of an accident - whether in a motor vehicle, due to a defective product, or medical malpractice, or because of a second party's negligence or malice - has the right to sue, or bring legal action against the party that caused the injury.
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The concept of suing someone for compensation for injury or property loss is an ancient one. In Anglo-Saxon England (prior to the year 1066), an injured party could bring a complaint before a village assembly, or folc-gemot, and argue their case. If the claim was found to have validity, the party responsible for the loss or injury was required to pay a sum of money - known as weregild - to the one who had suffered the injury or loss.
This is the basis of today's civil codes.
The Clock Is Ticking
Virtually all states place a statute of limitations on tort claims, under which an auto accident case falls. This is a period of time within which an injured party must file a claim or forever forfeit his/her right to do so. The statute of limitations begins with what is known as the cause of action; in other words, the incident that caused the injury or loss. Under most state laws, a civil complaint in a tort case must be filed within one or two years from the cause of action.
Under Maryland law, the statute of limitations is, in most cases, one year from the cause of action for "intentional torts" in which the injury was deliberately inflicted (an example would be if you were the victim of a "road rage" incident) and three years for injuries due to negligence (if for example the party responsible was distracted while talking on a cell phone).
Exceptions
While it is never a good idea to delay taking legal action in a tort case, Maryland law does provide for some flexibility under some circumstances. One of these is called the discovery rule. Although not applicable to all injury cases, it can delay the start of the statute of limitations period if the cause of action is not immediately known. Although rare, it is possible that injuries sustained in an auto accident are not immediately apparent (for example, whiplash). In this case, the statute of limitations would start once the injury was discovered.
A statute of limitations may also be tolled, or interrupted for a certain period. Tolling may be applied if at the time of the injury, the accident victim was:
o a minor
o mentally incompetent
o involved in a bankruptcy case
Again, tolling is not applicable to all auto accident injury cases.
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