How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Utah?

If you’ve been injured by someone else’s negligence here in Utah, you can bring a claim for personal injury, but that claim must be brought within what’s known as the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations puts a time limit on claims, so it’s always a good idea to speak with a personal injury attorney in Salt Lake City as quickly as possible after an injury so you can get started on your claim and have no risk of running out of time.

How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Utah?

Most Claims

For most personal injury claims, you have four years from the date that you were injured to file a lawsuit in court. This would include personal injury after a car accident or a fall on someone else’s property, dog bites, or injuries sustained in an assault and battery.

Product Liability

If you’re bringing a claim due to product liability, you have just two years from either the date that you discovered what caused your injury or should have discovered what caused it, if you had done a reasonable investigation into the matter. Product liability claims are when you are injured because a product is defective or dangerous in some way.

Wrongful Death

Wrongful death is a type of personal injury claim brought by the family of someone killed by another person’s negligence. Utah’s law allows just two years to bring a wrongful death claim, though that two years begins from the date of the death and not from the date of injury, if those are different.

Medical Malpractice

Finally, if you’re bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit, you have two years either from when you discovered the injury or from when you should’ve discovered it, whichever is earlier. With medical malpractice, you do have a bit more time if you haven’t realized that you’ve been injured or realized that the injury was caused by malpractice. This is known as the “discovery rule,” and it allows you two years from the time that you discover the injury.

However, you can never have more than four years total to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit, unless a surgeon has left a foreign object in you or you can show that a healthcare provider committed fraud to conceal their malpractice. In these two cases, you can always bring a medical malpractice claim, no matter how long it’s been, so long as you bring it within a year of discovering either the foreign object or the fraud.

Against the Government

Finally, if you have been injured because of the negligence of someone working for the government of Utah at the time of the accident, you have just one year to bring a claim. The deadline here is very tight, and there are extra hoops you have to jump through, so contact a lawyer immediately if you’re considering bringing a lawsuit against the state of Utah or a local civil authority.

Other Things to Know About Personal Injury Lawsuits

How Long Will It Take?

It’s very hard to say how long any individual case will take because so much is dependent on the details of your situation. In general, however, you can expect it to take several weeks in a best-case scenario and between three and nine months on average. Some cases can even go much longer than this.

How Does Liability Work?

Utah is a modified comparative negligence state. This means anyone less than 50% at fault for an accident can recover damages. It also means that your damages will be reduced by the same percentage as your fault. If your total damages are $50,000, for example, and the court determines that you are 25% at fault for the accident, you would only be able to recover $37,500, leaving you $12,500 out of pocket. As you can imagine, insurance companies try very hard to shift as much blame onto the victims as they possibly can to avoid having to pay any more than they absolutely must. This is one reason it’s very important to work with a lawyer who can protect you from these tactics.

Do I Need an Attorney in Salt Lake City?

It’s never advisable to try to bring a personal injury lawsuit on your own. Insurance companies have a lot of money and experience and will fight hard to minimize your claim. The court system also has no sympathy with those who bring a claim on their own. You must follow all courtroom procedures as if you know what to do at every step – the court won’t teach you – and you can prejudice the court against you if the court believes you are wasting its time as you bring a claim. A lawyer can also help you properly investigate the accident to prove liability, negotiate for you effectively, protect you from signing any settlements that aren’t in your best interests, and even help you deal with creditors who may be banging at the door as you wait for your settlement to come through.