As with any administrative process, personal injury claims must follow protocols that set out the time limits within which they can be carried out. A large number of claims that are made nowadays and the enormous variety of types of personal injury compensations that exist have influenced, to a certain extent, the fact that this type of claim are a beneficiary of a long period of time to be filed.
In addition to these circumstances, personal injury claims are influenced by other factors that contribute to long claim periods. Among these factors are the amount of documentation required, the prolongation in time of the direct consequences of the accident or the delay in the appearance of symptoms.
In order to deal with these variables, the most common is to count on the help of an expert lawyer in the matter. Throughout the country, there are numerous law firms specializing in personal injury cases. This is something that we can check just by typing: personal injury lawyers near Reno, NV.
The experience of this group of attorneys tells us that most clients have quite reasonable doubts about the real possibility they have or not to file a claim and, also, about the deadlines within which they can file it.
In order to resolve this last question, a series of factors must be taken into account:
1. The type of accident:
While accidents occurring on board a vehicle and personal and occupational accidents have an established claim period that starts to run from the time the accident occurred and rises to three years, incidents arising from medical negligence or poisoning by defective drugs or products are governed by other criteria.
The difference is that, in the latter cases, the three-year period starts to run from the moment a firm diagnosis of the negligence situation is issued or from the moment symptoms of intoxication due to exposure to a defective substance begin to be noticed. The longer time frame in these cases is amply justified since the consequences of malpractice or poisoning may take years to appear and, in fact, this is most common.
2. The age of the person in possession of making the claim.
Minors, even if they have been affected by any of the circumstances pertaining to personal injury, cannot make a claim for themselves. The alternative is that instead of them, the claim is made by their parents. In this case, the period for issuing the claim is also three years.
However, if it is the affected person who wishes to make the claim, they should wait until they reach the age of majority and, in that case, the three-year period would start to run from the day on which the person becomes of legal age.
Although the time to file a claim is quite long, the time to receive compensation is somewhat shorter. If there are no complications in the process, compensation is usually received within an estimated period of one to two months.
