LawCall: Statute of Limitations

Attorneys Tommy Siniard and William Messervy discuss statute of limitations amid current court proceedings due to coronavirus limitations.

Guy.

>> sharon doviet: we'll be right back with you, hold on, william.

Starting us off, tommy is going to talk about the statute of limitations.

The courthouses have been closed at times and back open now but not doing jury trials yet, does that mean somebody has longer to file their case?

>> tommy siniard: in a word, no.

The only thing that got extended is the time in which you have to file your taxes, which is this week, but, no, you still have to file your lawsuit within the applicable limits, statute of limitations, and understand that in tennessee, negligence has a one-year statute of limitations.

Alabama generally has a two-year statute of limitations from the date of an injury case.

And if you file it two years and one day, you're out of court, even with covid.

Because the courthouse has remained open for filing documents, most of which are all of which are online now.

So there is no gimmes on moving the statute of limitations back.

When i talk about statutes, i like to add this... in an eeoc case, a claim for sexual or racial discrimination or sexual harassment, you have to give notice to the eeoc in birmingham within six months of the date of the alleged discriminatory action.

>> sharon doviet: okay.

>> tommy siniard: and so some people get that confused, they have a year two years.

You don't.

>> sharon doviet: do you lose your case then too?

>> tommy siniard: if you don't meet the administration rule you lose your case.

You have one year if you're making a claim against the city for their negligence, a city, any city.

I know this is lovely to be up here coughing, but it just started.

And there's other sticky little "i gotchas" on some case ms. yo have to have a notice of claim against a county within a year if you're going to make a claim against a county.

So it's always better to ask an attorney sooner than later about your case.

Some people say, well, i got two years, i'm just going to wait.

Well, you can... >> sharon doviet: you can misyour deadline big time.

I have an unopened bottle of water.

>> tommy siniard: sorry.

>> sharon doviet: no problem.

Let's bring in william on that.

William, how then, if you need an attorney, you go -- if you don't have the money to hire an attorney, cases like this, can they come see an attorney that does personal injury cases, these kind of cases?

>> william messervy: absolutely.

Any type of claim for injury or negligence and really any claim gen xen -- any claim against an insurance company, a property damage claim or auto carrier, all are handled by personal injury lawyers and we do almost all those types of cases on contingency fee, which means you don't need money to hire a lawyer.

You don't need any money to go talk to a lawyer.

We're all willing to talk to you about those types of cases, and let you know what we can do for you and get started on your case, and we only get paid if and when we collect for you, a so, you know, it's not a -- give me 5,000 dollars and see what i can to for you, because we're not going to invest our time and energy and resources pursuing any sort of frivolous case there.

We're always happy to talk to anybody about any sort of case that they think they might have against, you know, whether it be really what is a brief of contract, like a property damage claim or storm damage claim all the way to a motor vehicle collision, workers' compensation, premises liability, which sometimes is referred to as slip and fall cases.

All of those type cases are handled by injury lawyers, and some of them are negligence case and some are technically