What Happens If Personal Injury Litigation Outlives the Litigants?

Anyone who thinks that suing someone who caused your injuries is a fast path to easy money has no concept of how long court cases take. The statute of limitations for filing a personal injury lawsuit in Florida is two years from the date of the accident or medical error that caused your injuries or your diagnosis of a disease caused by a dangerous product. Despite this, there is hardly a moment of rest between the time you get injured and the time you file a lawsuit, although courts receive many lawsuits that just barely make it in time for the two-year deadline. During that time, you are crunching numbers to see how much money you would have earned by retirement if not for your injury, and the medical bills keep piling up, even faster than you can add them to your total financial losses. Through all of this, you are coping with ill health. After that, filing the lawsuit is just the beginning. It can take years before you reach a settlement or go to trial. Sometimes the legal case even outlasts the plaintiff or the defendant. To find out more about what happens when you must involve the estate of a recently deceased litigant in a personal injury case, contact a Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorney.

Dead Men Can’t Sue?

In a wrongful death lawsuit, the plaintiffs are surviving relatives of a person who suffered fatal injuries caused by the defendant’s negligence. In this case, the victim or his or her estate is not a party to the lawsuit. In personal injury cases, one of the parties might die while the litigation is still pending. If a plaintiff files a personal injury lawsuit a year or so after a catastrophic accident, he or she might not still be alive by the time the case goes to trial or the parties agree to a settlement. This scenario is especially common in personal injury and medical malpractice cases involving elderly plaintiffs. When this happens, a representative of the plaintiff, such as the plaintiff’s lawyer or a close relative of the plaintiff, can ask the court to substitute the plaintiff’s estate as a party in the case. The estate remains open until the personal injury case resolves. After that, the settlement money or damages award becomes part of the plaintiff’s estate, and the plaintiff’s heirs inherit it in accordance with the plaintiff’s will or with Florida’s laws of intestate succession.

If the defendant dies while the case is pending, the defendant’s estate replaces the defendant as a party in the case. The defendant’s estate cannot settle until the personal injury case settles or reaches a verdict at trial. The settlement or damages award becomes a financial obligation of the estate.

Set Up a Consultation Today

A personal injury lawyer can help you if you are the close family member of someone who died while litigating a personal injury claim.  Contact Boone & Davis in Fort Lauderdale, Florida or call 954-566-9919 to explore your potential recovery options today.

Source:

floridacivpro.com/rules-1-010-to-1-250/1-260-survivor-substitution-of-parties/