Your doctor might have administered the wrong dosage of a drug, but you brushed off the incident. Months later, you start developing complications associated with the wrong dosage. Can you still file a case for their malpractice?
The truth is your case might be dismissed if it has gone beyond the statute of limitations. This is a deadline established by law beyond which you cannot file your claim in court.
Are you inside the legal timeframe?
New Jersey laws provide a two-year window from the date of injury beyond which your medical malpractice case may be time-barred. However, there are exceptions.
The law recognizes that medical malpractice can cause unique kinds of injuries that may not be immediately apparent to the victim. For example, if a surgical towel was left inside you, it could be several years before complications reveal what happened. In situations like that the clock on the two-year time limit starts ticking as soon as you either discover (or should have discovered) the injury that gives you a cause of action.
There are also some complex exceptions for cases where the victim was a minor at the time of the malpractice injury.
What does this mean for your medical malpractice claim?
If you’ve been injured due to a hospital or doctor’s mistake, you have every right to pursue a claim for medical malpractice. Your pain, your suffering and your economic losses can all be compensated – but you must act quickly so that you don’t lose that option.
Waiting too long can be fatal to your case. Learning more about how medical malpractice claims work can make the process easier.
