Each state has its own time limit. Some states give plaintiffs only 2 years in which to file such a claim; other states grant plaintiffs up to 6 years of time.
Under certain circumstances the span of time given to plaintiffs gets shortened.
That would be the case, if the defendant were a government agency. In such a situation, the plaintiff would have only 1year in which to file a wrongful death claim.
What sort of misconduct could cause a government agency to be a defendant in wrongful death lawsuit?
There might be evidence that government signs had helped to cause the accident. It could be that a given sign was not well lighted, and caused a driver to make a fatal error. The plaintiff would have only 1 year in which to establish the veracity of that fact.
Alternately, it could be that a government-hired engineer had failed to create a safe curve along one specific roadway. Perhaps on a dark and rainy night an automobile skids off of that curve, and an occupant of the same car died. In that case, a government agency might be held liable for the fatal outcome of that skidding incident.
What tasks do plaintiffs have to carry out, in order to file a claim successfully?
The Injury Lawyer in Bradford knows that plaintiffs must submit a complaint, and then serve a copy of the complaint on the defendant. Sometimes, a plaintiff struggles to locate a given defendant. The legal system grants to plaintiffs the right to seek an extension of the statute of limitations, if a plaintiff needs more time for locating the defendant, the person that must receive a copy of the filed complaint.
What is the starting point for the timeline that plaintiffs must follow, when attempting to file a wrongful death claim?
That starting point is the date when the misconduct by the responsible party was first discovered. At the time of a fatal accident, the cause of death would be apparent, and the date of the accident would mark the starting point for any plaintiff’s timeline. Of course, that timeline would end abruptly, following the death of a hospitalized victim.
How could actions of a decedent affect the ability of a loved one to file a wrongful death lawsuit?
An injured accident victim might fail to file a personal injury claim while struggling to recover from his or her injuries. If that same victim were to die, and if the statute of limitations were to expire, then those that were mourning the death of a loved one (the injured victim) could not file a wrongful death lawsuit. The legal system would have declared that the filing of such a lawsuit had been time-barred.
