Every state has different laws. They have autonomy regarding certain vital concepts. That is why some people move from one state to another.

Every state handles personal limitations and statutes differently when addressing personal injury lawsuits. We will talk about this concept in detail right now.

What is a Statute of Limitations?

A statute of limitations means you have a certain length of time in place during which you can bring a personal injury lawsuit against someone you believe harmed you. The government must also adhere to a statute of limitations regarding the time they have to charge someone with certain crimes.

For instance, in some states, if someone claims that someone else molested them, they might have a certain amount of time during which they can legally bring charges. If that amount of time passes, the person who alleges that someone else abused them can no longer legally bring a lawsuit against them.

Regarding personal injury lawsuits, Pennsylvania has a two-year personal injury case statute of limitations. In other words, if you live in Pennsylvania, and you believe that a person or entity harmed you, then you must bring a lawsuit against them within two years. If more time than that elapses, you can no longer bring a lawsuit against that person or entity.

What Reasons Might You Have for Bringing a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

In Pennsylvania or elsewhere, you might have certain reasons for bringing personal injury lawsuits. For instance, if a driver hurts you by running into your vehicle with their car, you might bring a lawsuit against them. Maybe this person consumed alcohol before driving. Perhaps they drove many miles over the speed limit, so you feel they behaved recklessly.

Maybe a company comes out with a product that harms you. You feel that the company did not test the product enough. If you can prove that, you might collect some money from the manufacturer.

Perhaps you fall down while on someone’s front steps. They knew the steps needed repairs, but they did not fix them. You might collect some money from them in that instance.

You might sue a company if you fall down in their store. If they wash the floor but don’t have a wet floor sign up, you should win a lawsuit against them.

If someone lets their dog get loose, and that dog bites you, you might bring a personal injury lawsuit against them. You may sue a company if you’re walking past a construction site and something falls and hits you in the head. Maybe you’ll have memory problems or headaches from that point forward.

What Injuries Might You Sustain that Will Cause You to Bring a Lawsuit?

You might bring a lawsuit against a person or company for many injuries you sustain. You might sustain a TBI. A traumatic brain injury can impact your life very seriously. Maybe you can’t remember things anymore. Perhaps you’ve lost some of your vision.

A person or company might break some of your bones through their action or inaction. A car accident can break some bones. The situation we described previously, where something falls on you from a construction site, might break some of your bones as well.

You might lose a limb or sustain scrapes, cuts, and bruises. Virtually any physical injury might bring about a lawsuit.

You can sue in some instances if a person or company harmed you but you didn’t suffer physical injuries. Maybe someone kills one of your family members through their negligence. Perhaps that’s your spouse or partner.

In that instance, you can bring a wrongful death suit against the person or company you hold responsible. You can allege that they caused your feelings of sadness and depression because they took away the person you loved and cherished most.

Must You File a Lawsuit Within the Two-Year Period?

You might also wonder whether you must always file a personal injury lawsuit in Pennsylvania during that two-year designated period or whether certain exceptions exist. Exceptions do exist, as a lawyer will tell you if you go and see them.

For instance, maybe a person or company hurt you, but you’re not yet eighteen years old. If you’re under eighteen, you can’t legally file a personal injury lawsuit yet. A parent can file one for you, though.

Let’s say that you’re under eighteen, and someone hurt you. Your parents don’t file a suit on your behalf. Once you turn eighteen, that’s when the two-year term starts. You can bring a lawsuit at age eighteen, even if the incident that hurt you occurred several years before.

You might also have a situation where something injures you, and you slip into a coma. Maybe if something falls and hits you in the head, you’ll remain unconscious for several months.

If you wake from your coma, that is when the two-year time period starts during which you can legally file a lawsuit in Pennsylvania. You can get more details about these exceptions, but you should know that the two-year statute of limitations isn’t set in stone in some scenarios.

If you feel that some company or person harmed you in Pennsylvania, you might think you have grounds for a possible lawsuit. You should speak to a lawyer about that. You can find many personal injury lawyers in Pennsylvania, and the right one can help you.

They can tell you more about the statute of limitations and whether you have any exception that gives you more time. If you’re within the legal time period, the attorney can help you start your lawsuit expediently so that you don’t miss that deadline.

Keep in mind that the two-year statute of limitations doesn’t mean you must conclude that lawsuit during the two-year period. It means that you must start the lawsuit before the deadline.

That’s why finding a lawyer who can help you matters so much. They can file the paperwork and get the process started.