Pedestrian Accident Statute of Limitations

Answer:

Occasionally, I’m asked by clients who come to see me for a pedestrian car collision in Virginia, “How long do I have to file a suit to protect my claim?” While the easy answer is that you have two years from the date of the accident to file your personal injury claim in court, in reality if you want to actually have the best chance of recovering what you’re owed for that injury claim, you need to start far sooner than that. In fact, the sooner after the accident you retain counsel, the better your odds are of recovering anything as a result of that collision. As a pedestrian it’s assumed by most people, as a general rule, that you must have been at fault somehow to start crossing when a car was coming.How do you get over that presumption? Well, the only way to do it is with careful and early scene investigation. By doing that, whether it be through taking copies of the investigating officer’s notes or photographs, going out and doing actual measurements and looking at sight lines at the scene of the crash, it’s extremely important to get somebody on your case immediately after it happens, in order for you to have the best chance of recovering from that claim.