In the interest of keeping the legal system moving smoothly and producing fundamentally fair outcomes, Arizona state law limits the amount of time you can wait after sustaining a personal injury to file suit against the person at fault for causing that injury. If you wait longer than the deadline applicable to your specific claim, you will almost certainly be barred forever from filing civil suit over that particular incident, and that fact would make it nearly impossible to obtain a private settlement offer for that incident.
Accordingly, complying with the Tempe car accident statute of limitations is essential to obtaining fair financial restitution after someone else injures you through their own reckless or careless driving. However, determining exactly what deadline you are bound by can be a little trickier in practice than you might expect, as a car accident lawyer from Phillips Law Group can further explain during a free, no-obligation consultation.
The standard statute of limitations for most personal injury claims in Tempe, including those centered around injuries caused by traffic collisions, is codified in Arizona Revised Statutes §12-542. Under this section of state law, anyone who gets hurt through another person’s irresponsible driving or through any other road hazard stemming from a third party’s negligence has a maximum of two years to file suit against the person or people at fault for injuring them.
Generally, this two-year period starts on the date on which the accident—and subsequently, the injury around which a lawsuit would ostensibly be built—actually occurred. However, there are a few notable circumstances under which the starting point for the two-year filing period may be “tolled,” or pushed back, for a certain period of time.
The most common reason for a court to toll the statute of limitations for someone intending to sue over a car crash in Tempe is because there was some reason the plaintiff could not lawfully and/or practically file suit immediately after sustaining their injury. For example, under what is known as the “Discovery Rule,” the statute of limitations can be tolled if an injured person did not discover and could not reasonably have discovered their injuries until some time had passed after those injuries first occurred.
Similarly, children under the age of 18 cannot legally represent themselves in court, so if a child injured in a traffic accident wants to file suit on their own behalf, they may be allowed up to two years after their 18th birthday to do so. That said, if a parent or guardian wishes to file suit on behalf of their injured child, the standard two-year filing period would generally apply.
This is far from a comprehensive overview of every possible scenario which could alter the Tempe car accident statute of limitations. For instance, if the party at fault for your auto accident is a government employee or entity, you would be required to file an initial notice of claim with that party no more than 180 days after your accident, and then you would have up to one year to file suit if—following a maximum 60-day review period—your named defendant(s) denies or refuses to pay your claim.
No matter what, though, support from skilled legal counsel is key to efficiently constructing and filing the strongest possible claim over your unique wreck. Call today to learn what the team at Phillips Law Group can do for you.
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