Statute of Limitations in Michigan
You might suffer a personal injury due to someone else’s negligence that causes you to obtain medical treatment, miss work for a while, and potentially worse. When you suffer injuries due to other people’s negligence, Grand Rapids personal injury attorneys are your best resource for holding liable parties accountable.
Personal injuries could occur in a variety of ways. They might happen while you are working, shopping, or driving. You might be inside someone’s home when a dangerous condition causes an accident that injures you. At all times, you have the right to hold liable parties accountable for your injuries and related damages.
A personal injury could be more than broken bones and soft tissue damage. A variety of non-bodily personal injuries also qualify as types of personal injury for which you might seek relief in court.
Common Causes of Actionable Personal Injuries
The vast majority of personal injury lawsuits generally arise from several commonly occurring situations. The odds are most people will experience at least one accident that causes injury and has one or more potentially liable parties.
The most common causes of personal injury lawsuits include:
- Auto accidents
- Slip-and-falls
- Defective products
- Medical malpractice
- Dog bites
Some personal injuries arise from criminal acts. If you suffer an injury while being robbed, assaulted, or victimized by some other criminal act, you could sue that person in a civil lawsuit. The legal action would be completely separate from any criminal proceedings that might occur, but still are valid.
Those who recall the O.J. Simpson murder trial might be aware that he eventually lost a civil suit for wrongful death filed by the family of Nicole Simpson-Brown. Simpson beat the criminal charges but lost the civil suit, which has a lower threshold for proof than a criminal prosecution.
Many personal injuries also occur while working, but worker’s compensation usually covers those costs. When an injured worker accepts worker’s compensation benefits, that worker gives up the right to sue the employer – but not the right to sue third parties.
If a third-party vendor or maybe the manufacturer of defective equipment significantly contributed to creating a dangerous condition that results in injury, the worker could file legal claims against those parties.
Violations of the Duty of Care Affirm Negligence and Liability
Liability for causing personal injuries comes from the duty of care, which refers to the responsibility virtually everyone has to act in a reasonable and responsible manner for the sake of safety.
For example, a motorist has the duty of care to drive in a safe manner and obey traffic laws. A store owner has the duty of care to identify and correct dangerous conditions as they arise, such as a spill in an aisleway. Placing warning signs or cones and immediately acting to clean up a spill is an example of abiding by the duty of care.
As long as the people who control a property or a piece of equipment, such as a vehicle, act in a reasonable manner, they are abiding by the duty of care and there is no liability for a personal injury. When those people ignore the duty of care, then they become liable for damages.
Statute of Limitations Applies to Personal Injury Lawsuits
Michigan’s statute of limitations gives you up to three years to file a lawsuit after you suffer a personal injury. The clock starts ticking the moment the accident occurs and a personal injury is diagnosed. Experienced Grand Rapids personal injury attorneys can help you to identify liable parties and build strong cases against them for which you might obtain a financial settlement.
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