A statute of limitations limits the amount of time after an incident in which an involved party may bring legal action against another. This can apply to personal injury or even criminal charges. You have probably heard at some point that there is no statute of limitations on murder but for most every other situation there is. These limits are in place to protect everyone and may be a roadblock for some but overall keeps legal proceedings fair.

Imagine that you were in a car accident. Ten years later the other involved party sued you for damages. Would you remember the facts of the incident well enough to defend yourself? Could you locate the witnesses involved or identify your insurance company from a decade ago? Obviously this would not be fair to you. From the time the accident happened the other victim is subject to a period of time according to each state, to hold you accountable for their injury or damage. This is the whole premise behind the creation of the statute of limitations. There are exceptions to the rule of course. If a surgeon leaves a surgical tool in your abdomen and it is not discovered until eight years later then the statute of limitations would start upon reasonable discovery of the injury. If you committed a crime, depending on the severity, prosecutors only have so much time to charge you. The more serious the crime the longer the statute of limitations is. Following the same premise mentioned above it would not be fair to you to expect you to mount a defense for something that happened year’s prior. There are more exceptions to this rule concerning product liability or class action suits. If you are injured along with others and a class actions suit is pending you must either join or submit a written request to be excluded. Otherwise, you will be bound by the judgement laid out by the courts. This protects companies from facing multiple lawsuits stretched over years. Working with an attorney you can figure out if there is a statute of limitations applicable to your injury and if so try to meet the requirements. There are multiple situations and legal issues that must be discussed with an attorney as they are too lengthy to mention here.

As burdensome as the statute of limitations may be, it is in place to keep the legal system fair to all parties. In criminal cases it generally swings in favor of the defendant protecting their right to fairness.

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