Accident victims typically have only a single year to file a personal injury claim before they will become ineligible to do so, although this may vary depending on the specific offense. This period of time—otherwise known as a statute of limitation—begins the moment you learn that you have been harmed, or at least from the moment you should have reasonably been aware of the fact.
While there will not typically be any delay in the discovery of an injury, the consequences of some accidents will not be apparent until long after the incident itself. For instance, the long-term effects of toxic exposure may not become manifest in workers until later in their life. Under these circumstances, then, a worker would have a single year after he or she discovered the harm caused by his or her employer.
Though the delay in the discovery of an injury will be taken into account by the court, you will need to be able to demonstrate that any delay must be considered to be reasonable under the circumstances of your case. In relation to the earlier example, the worker filing a toxic exposure claim will be subject to Louisiana’s statutes of limitation once he or she should have reasonably become aware of the harm—say, if he or she experienced symptoms of an ailment but failed to seek medical treatment.
If you were injured in an accident anywhere around the Lake Charles area, you should speak with one of the Lake Charles personal injury attorneys with [firm-name] to begin developing your legal strategy sooner rather than later. To discuss the particulars of your accident, please call our Lake Charles offices at [phone-number] today.