You are driving on a road through Galveston when all of a sudden, another vehicle fails to heed a traffic light and strikes your vehicle. Though you survive, the accident has inflicted injuries on you that will take a while to recover from. While this scenario does not happen to everyone, it still happens to too many people. To recover damages, injury victims may resort to a personal injury suit.
However, if you wish to act, you must do so within a certain time frame. People who sustain injuries due to the reckless actions of another person do not have indefinite time to file a suit in court. This is because Texas places a statute of limitations on when a person may file a personal injury suit.
Texas statute of limitations
According to state law, a civil statute of limitations may extend from one to five years, but it depends upon how serious the claim is. An individual who suffered a sexual assault may litigate the offending party within five years of the assault. Conversely, people who feel another party has libeled or slandered them have just one year to act before the statute of limitations expires.
Personal injury time limits
In the case of personal injury, a person has two years from the date of the injury until the statute of limitations runs out. This may seem like a long enough time to decide whether to pursue litigation, but building a case takes time. Also, if you are recovering from serious injury, you might focus so much on your current state of health that other concerns may fall by the wayside.
Ultimately, if you should become involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, the choice of whether to litigate the reckless party is up to you. Because there is a time limit to filing suit, asking for legal help may become necessary so you can make key decisions in a timely manner.
