What Is The Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Cases in North Carolina?
Many would say three years. While that’s true most of the time, it’s not always true. And the exceptions can be critical—sometimes to save a case and sometimes to ruin a case.
Understanding the Statute of Limitations in Personal Injury Law
A fundamental question in every personal injury case is, What is the statute of limitation? That means, What is the deadline in which a lawsuit must be filed against the at-fault person?
There is not just one statute of limitation. A statute is a written law enacted by a legislative body (in North Carolina, the General Assembly). North Carolina statutes include various statutes of limitation and statutes relating to them, including statutes for personal injury lawsuits.
The General Three-Year Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims
The North Carolina statute normally applicable to personal injury cases provides that a lawsuit for personal injury must be brought within three years after the “accrual” of the action, which is when the injury becomes apparent, or ought reasonably to have become apparent, to the plaintiff (the injured party bringing the suit). So the usual North Carolina statute of limitation for personal injury cases is three years. By far, the safest practice is to consider the statute of limitation to accrue on the date of the wreck, fall, or other type of incident even if the plaintiff didn’t realize she was injured until later. No personal injury lawyer wants to be in a position of having to litigate the issue of when the plaintiff became aware, or should reasonably have become aware, of her injury—if the judge rules against the plaintiff on that, the case is over, and she recovers nothing.
Exception: Wrongful Death Claims Have a Two-Year Deadline
Here’s an exception to the three-year statute of limitation for personal injury cases that is critical to know: When someone is killed in a wreck or other incident, and the administrator or executor of the decedent’s estate brings a lawsuit against the at-fault person, the statute of limitation for that lawsuit, called a wrongful death action, is two years from the date of death. You can see how assuming the three-year personal injury statute applies to all personal injury cases could be fatal to a wrongful death claim.
Exception: Survival Actions After an Injured Person Dies
What if the injured person later dies, before the expiration of the three-year statute of limitation, for reasons unrelated to the wreck or other incident? The administrator or executor of the decedent’s estate can still file a lawsuit against the at-fault person for the decedent’s injuries. This is commonly called a survival action. A favorable exception to the three-year statute of limitation applies. The survival lawsuit does not have to be filed within the three-year statute of limitation if it is filed within one year after the decedent’s death.
Exception: Statute of Limitations for Injured Minors
Another favorable exception to the general three-year statute of limitation is for injured minors (persons under the age of 18). The lawsuit for the minor need not be filed within three years of the accrual of the action; it can be filed anytime within three years after the minor’s 18th birthday. But it isn’t quite that simple. Part of a personal injury claim is for the medical expenses for treatment of the injuries. North Carolina law gives the minor’s claim for medical expenses to a custodial parent of the minor. A parent’s lawsuit for a minor’s medical expenses must be brought within three years of the accrual of the action, not within three years after the minor’s 18th birthday. For example, if a six-year-old child, born on December 1, 2019, is injured in a wreck on January 1, 2026, the child’s lawsuit would not have to be filed until December 1, 2037, when the child turns 18. But a parent’s lawsuit for the child’s medical expenses would have to be filed by January 1, 2029, within the normal three-year statute of limitation.
Making a parent’s claim for a minor’s medical expenses can be complicated. Frequently, a minor’s personal injury claim and a parent’s medical expense claim are included in the same lawsuit. But to do it that way, the lawsuit would have to be filed within the usual three-year statute of limitation. Also, a parent can waive her claim for the minor’s medical expenses, which can involve additional tricky issues.
Another exception to the three-year personal injury statute is for injured persons who are insane or incompetent. They’re considered disabled. For them, the three-year statute of limitation does not begin until the disability is removed.
Special Statute of Limitations Rules for Medical Malpractice Cases
North Carolina law also provides special statute of limitation provisions for medical malpractice cases. Those are beyond the scope of this paper, which is not meant to be a complete discussion of all aspects of the statute of limitation law.
Why Statute of Limitations Issues Can End a Case Before It Begins
As you can see, this is not simple. And statutes of limitation are heartless. Generally, nothing can be done to save a lawsuit not brought within the applicable statute of limitation. Sometimes parties agree, before the statute of limitation expires, to extend the statute of limitation beyond the statutory deadline. That, though, can be problematic and must be done with great caution. The key to not having a statute of limitation problem with your personal injury suit is having an experienced personal injury attorney, such as the attorneys at Slaughter & Lupton Law.
