People take legal matters into their own hands every day, and sometimes they lose money and property in the process. You can make a legally binding contract without using an attorney, but you are risking missing some big legal loopholes and laws you may not be familiar with that can not only make your contract invalid but can actually cost you in the end. When you are selling or purchasing real estate, tackling the creation of a will or even just loaning money to a friend, a consultation with an attorney can be a positive step. I'll show you when and why you need an attorney.
Just like other personal injury cases, product liability injuries have the statute of limitations that determine how long you have to file a lawsuit. Here are some important things you should know about the statute of limitations for product liability injuries:
Statute Of Limitations Vary By State
Most personal injury laws vary by state, and product liability laws are no exception. The statute of limitations for product liabilities can be as short as a year in some states while is as long as six years in other states. This means you run a risk of letting the statute of limitations expire if you are injured out of state, and you aren't familiar with that state's product liability laws. This is a good reason you should pursue a product liability case without an attorney's involvement, especially if it involves laws of other states.
There Are Three Main Forms of Statute Of Limitations
Another thing most people don't know is that statute of limitations comes in different forms. Here are three of the most common ones:
Counting From Injury Date
In this case, the statute of limitations is counted from the date you were injured. For example, if you are injured on 3rd January, and the statute of limitations is one year, you have exactly up to the following 3rd January to file your claim. This is the case even if you get injure don 3rd January but only gets to know about it after six months or so (this can easily be the case with internal injuries).
Counting From Date of Discovery
Counting statute of limitations from the date of injury is unfair to injury victims who don't discover their injuries immediately. This is why some states only begin the counting from the date you discovered your injury should have discovered your injury. For example, if you are exposed to a slow-acting poison in January, but you only get to know about it during your annual health checkup in August, the statute of limitations will be counted from August.
Statutes of Repose
Statutes of repose begin the counting from the day of the negligent action that might cause injury, even if the injury hasn't yet occurred. Statutes of repose isn't exactly the same as the statute of limitations, it's more like a different version or variation of the law. For example, if you are exposed to a carcinogen in February, then that is when the counting begins even if you only develop cancer four years later. This means the statutes of repose may even be nearly through or even through before you get injured or discover your injury.
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