I was contacted by three separate potential clients this week inquiring about their personal injury cases. In each such instance, I listened to the injuries that they sustained and in a case where there was a clear liability, I had to tell them that I would not be able to represent them because of a very large mistake they had made. Sadly, each one of these individuals was unaware of the huge problem that they had created for themselves.
In certain cases, someone who is involved in an accident in Connecticut will go online and will search for the statute of limitations, or the amount of time that you have to file a suit, for their accident or injury case. In most instances, you will have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit for damages sustained as a result of the negligence or fault of another person. There are a number of exceptions to this general rule.
Most people in this position will then mistakingly think they have up to two years before they have to hire a lawyer if they are unable to resolve their own case. In each one of the cases that I just referenced, waiting caused a tragic problem for each of them.
In one case, the individual had a potential claim against the city for negligence that resulted in their damages. This person did not realize that although they had two years from the date of the accident to file suit, there was also a notice provision whereby the city had to be provided with a statutory notice, in as little as 90 days, in order to allow them to proceed with their case. This was not done and the individual did not have a case.
In another situation, the caller was seriously injured by a drunk driver who did not have any insurance but there was a potential claim against the bar that served the intoxicated individual who caused the accident. Again, although there is a two-year statute of limitations in which to file suit against the responsible party, a dram shop claim also provides for a statutory notice that needs to be filed in as little as 90 days.
The last case involved an accident, where the individual was seriously injured, involving one vehicle going through a red light. Each party involved in the accident claim that the other person had the red light. If we had gotten involved at the beginning of the case, we would have had our private investigator determine what video surveillance cameras were in the area and we would have obtained those tapes to see if any of them proved which party went through the red light.
The lesson to be learned here is that if you are involved in an accident then you need to contact an experienced Connecticut personal injury attorney at the earliest possible moment so that your case can be investigated, facts can be obtained, witnesses can be interviewed, experts can be sent to the accident site to obtain information that might otherwise not be available after the passage of time and to properly protect your interests.
Our Connecticut accident lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee basis and advance the costs to develop your case. In other words, you will not have to come up with any money out of your own pocket to hire our Connecticut injury attorneys to represent you. We are only paid a fee and recover our costs once we collect money damages for you. If there is no recovery then you will owe us no legal fees and no costs.
Don't wait and potentially destroy your Connecticut personal injury case. Contact us today.
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