If you have been the victim of an injury or an illness that wasn’t your fault, then making a personal injury claim can be one of the most effective ways of ensuring that you are compensated.

Personal injury payouts can go to cover things like medical bills and lost earnings while you recuperate, which unfortunately often won’t be covered in full by workers’ comp payouts. In some cases, it’s worth pursuing a personal injury claim to ensure that you don’t end up out of pocket.

Statute of limitations

The statute of limitations is the amount of time that you have to initiate legal proceedings. For personal injury cases, the statute of limitations is counted as beginning on the day that the injury was sustained.

There are some exceptions to this rule. If, for example, you became ill due to unsafe working conditions, but you didn’t discover that you were ill until much later, the statute of limitations would begin from the time that you discovered your illness. An example of this is people who become ill years after working with asbestos; they were not protected from harm by their employer, so they had a right to take legal action even though the full impact wasn’t discovered until years later.

In Kansas, the statute of limitations is two years, but it is as short as one year in some other states. Most cases that are filed after the statute of limitations have expired will be immediately dismissed, so you must file your claim as quickly as possible.

You should ensure that you are aware of your injury’s full impact before filing, however, as it can be difficult to add additional claims later on. For example, a whiplash injury can take a few days or weeks to develop, so if you think this may be something that affects your case, it’s worth waiting long enough to assess the full damage.

Assessing your claim

If someone else’s negligence or action is the cause of your injury, then you could be entitled to a personal injury claim. As someone who isn’t familiar with personal injury law, it can sometimes be difficult to know whether your case would be eligible or not.

To ensure that anyone who can make a claim, do, personal injury lawyers such as Brown and Crouppen will often offer you a free assessment of your case. They will take the details from you, and if they think that they will be able to win it for you, they will let you know.

Often, they will offer not to take a fee unless they can win the case for you, which means that you won’t be out of pocket.

Settlement vs. law suit

The most common resolution to personal injury cases is a settlement, which means you will be offered a sum of money to close your case and not take it any further.

It is sometimes worth taking a settlement if it is high enough to don’t need to go through a prolonged lawsuit that can take years to resolve and involves court appearances. Your lawyer will advise you on the best course of action if you are offered a settlement.