It can be very disorienting to be injured in a sudden accident—especially if it was caused by someone else’s negligence and not your own mistake. It takes time to get your bearings and figure out what to do after slipping on a wet floor in a grocery store, getting t-boned in an intersection, or being injured by a doctor’s mistake. Fortunately, under South Carolina personal injury law, you have several years to file a personal injury claim before the statute of limitations expires.Why You Don’t Want to Use All the Time You Have
Even though you have three years to file a claim, you never want to wait that long to get started. In fact, the sooner you file a claim, the stronger your case is likely to be. That is because it will be easier to gather the evidence you need to prove fault if you do it soon after the accident. Also, filing while medical treatment is ongoing helps make the case that your injuries are serious. If you have catastrophic injuries, your lawyer might advise you to wait until you have reached maximum medical improvement before agreeing to a settlement, but that doesn’t mean you should delay filing for the full three years. Finally, filing promptly sends a strong message to the deciding parties that you are serious about the claim, especially if you have a personal injury lawyer representing you.
