A Statute of Repose is also called a Statute of Limitations. Even if you have an open-and-shut case against someone who harmed you, if you do not file your claim in court before the deadline, you will get no compensation from the guilty person.

The Statute of Repose sets the deadline for each type of case. For example, depending on the kind of lawsuit you are bringing, you have to file your suit within one, two, four, five, or 20 years from the injury or action. Wrongful death cases have a two-year deadline, but an effect on a judgment has a 20-year limit.

Statute of Limitations for a Car Accident in Florida

If you claim that the person you are suing was negligent and that negligence caused the crash and the injuries, you will usually have four years from the date of the accident to file the lawsuit.

If, however, you are alleging that the person acted intentionally and someone died as a result, there is no deadline in Florida for bringing the wrongful death action. Florida law does not require that the person was ever arrested, charged with a crime, or convicted.

How Much Time You Have to File a Lawsuit for Personal Injury in Florida

The deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit in Florida is four years, except for specific types of torts. Here a few:

  • Medical malpractice
  • Wrongful death from negligence
  • Injury from exposure to military chemicals

Just as with car accidents, if a person died from the intentional act of another, you can bring the wrongful death lawsuit at any time.

Deadline for Suing for a Defective or Dangerous Product in Florida

Since Florida law concludes that all products have a maximum useful life of only ten years and sometimes less than that, you cannot bring a lawsuit if you suffered injuries from a defective or dangerous product that is more than 12 years old. You must file the lawsuit within four years from the date of injury.

The way this works in the 2017 Florida statutes is that if your 11-year-old riding lawnmower’s defective design caused a blade to fly off and injure you, you have four years from that day to file a lawsuit. On the other hand, if your 15-year-old gas oven exploded, you cannot sue the manufacturer for your injuries.

The Statute of Repose for Medical Malpractice in Florida

The deadlines for medical malpractice are a bit murky in Florida. A medical malpractice attorney must file your lawsuit within two years of the injury. But if, for example, you do not discover a sponge a surgeon accidentally left inside you until more than two years after the surgery, the attorney must bring the lawsuit within two years of when you found the injury, but no later than four years from the date of the operation.

You can get extra time, up to a maximum of seven years total, if the healthcare professional fraudulently prevents you from discovering the injury or its cause.

Lawsuits on Behalf of Children

Children and other people who do not have the legal capacity to file lawsuits, such as the mentally incapacitated, can get extra time to bring actions for personal injuries in Florida. A child receives the longer of either seven years from the date of injury or the standard deadline for their type of case.

If you have suffered injuries that were someone else’s fault, please call the Montero Law Center at 954-767-6500 to schedule your no-cost consultation. Please do not delay, because once the deadline passes, we cannot help you.