The disorientation that you experience when your family member succumbs to fatal injuries caused by someone else’s negligence can be so overwhelming that you might miss important deadlines to recover compensation. An experienced wrongful death attorney is your best resource to make sure that you take all action to file your claims within the applicable statute of limitations.
For more than 60 years, the lawyers at Schechter Shaffer & Harris have represented bereaved families in wrongful death lawsuits. We take great care in every case to investigate and file the strongest wrongful death claims in Missouri City, TX well before the deadlines set by the State’s statute of limitations.
What is a Statute of Limitations?
Every state has enacted laws that include deadlines for when a lawsuit must be filed. Those deadlines prevent old or stale claims from clogging up courts and provide assurances to parties that evidence will still be available to prove their cases.
In Missouri City, the statute of limitations for a wrongful death claim is two years from the date of the accident victim’s death. The accident that caused the fatality might have occurred weeks or months before that date, and a different statute of limitations will apply to negligence lawsuits that relate to the accident date. The wrongful death deadline, however, will always relate to the fatality date.
Are There Exceptions to the Wrongful Death Statute of Limitations?
In general, if a Missouri City claimant files a wrongful death lawsuit after the expiration of the statute of limitations, a court will dismiss the lawsuit because of its untimeliness. An experienced attorney will consider possible exceptions that can prevent that dismissal:
- The plaintiff who has the right to file a wrongful death lawsuit is less than 18 years old, in which case the statute will be paused and will not begin to run until the plaintiff’s 18th birthday
- The cause of the victim’s death was not known or could not have been immediately determined through diligent examination of the circumstances
- The negligent party actively concealed the fact that their actions caused the victim’s death
- The plaintiff suffered some physical or mental limitation that prevented them from timely filing their lawsuit.
In every case, rather than looking for an exception to the statute of limitations deadline, the better course of action is to retain a knowledgeable lawyer as soon as possible after the death. That lawyer will then handle all aspects of your wrongful death claim and free up your time and energy to attend to your family’s needs.
How Does the Statute of Limitations Differ from the Statute of Repose?
Even with a valid exception to the statute of limitations, there is an absolute ten-year deadline for filing your wrongful death claim. For example, you might discover information many years after a victim’s death that medical care providers covered up their negligence, or that manufacturers of consumer products concealed known safety hazards that caused a fatal accident. If you uncovered that information more than ten years after the date of the victim’s death, then unless a small number of limited exceptions apply to extend the statute of repose, your lawsuit will likely be dismissed.
Call Our Missouri City Attorneys to Discuss the Statute of Limitations for a Wrongful Death Claim
You will take a substantial risk of losing your right to recover substantial compensation if you file a wrongful death lawsuit after the applicable deadline under the Missouri City wrongful death statute of limitations. Instead of taking that risk, call the personal injury lawyers at Schechter Shaffer & Harris for a no-fee, no-obligation review of your claims and the deadline for filing them.
