Preserving Your Legal Rights When You or a Loved One is Injured

You have a right to compensation for the pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages, and other harms that can result when you are harmed by the negligent, reckless, or intentional actions of others or by a defectively manufactured product. If you have been the victim of a crime, involved in a car accident, or suffered a painful fall you likely have a personal injury claim. But this claim and your right to recover financially can be lost if you do not act quickly enough. Additionally, if someone is killed by a defective product or the action of another person their family members likely will be able to bring a suit. Such a suit can be based on both what that person suffered and the loss others experienced as a result of that person’s death. It is also important that these family members be attentive to the fact that they have a limited amount of time to file a lawsuit.

Typically if you have been injured as the result of the actions of another person you have two years from the time you were injured to file a lawsuit against them. If you have been injured by a defective product your injury must have occurred within ten years of the first sale or delivery of that product in order for you to be able to bring a lawsuit against the product’s manufacturer.

Illinois has laws which can create some exceptions to these time limits. If a child is injured they have until two years after they turned 18 years old to file suit. If a person under a legal disability is injured they have two years from the time the disability comes to an end. This rule offers particularly strong protections of the rights of those who are permanently disabled, whether this was true prior to their injury or is the result of their injury.

If the person responsible for a causing an injury hides the fact of their responsibility then the injured person can sue them up to five years after discovering they are at fault.

If an injured person is not aware of the injury at the time it is suffered, and it was reasonable for them not to know this, then they can bring suit within two years of discovering the injury or the point when they reasonably should have discovered the injury. It might seem strange that someone would be injured and not know about it. But this can happen when the results of a mishandled medical procedure are not immediately obvious or when a harmful substance, such as a pesticide or something else that might contaminate food or water, is ingested.

Also, if a manufacturer alters, modifies, or changes a product, or provides the owner of that product with materials or instructions that are meant to be used to alter, modify, or change the product, then a lawsuit can be brought within ten years of the time the product was changed. This could happen quite some time after the product is first sold, extending the already fairly lengthy period of liability for the manufacturer of a product.

With nearly 25 years of experience in representing personal injury clients, the Law Offices of Edward P. Graham, Ltd. can act promptly and effectively to protect your interests if you’ve been injured as a result of a defective product or the negligence, reckless, or intentional actions of others.