McCarthy Fingar's Legal Malpractice lawyers are frequently retained when lawyers representing clients fail to bring a case within the applicable Statute of Limitations and Legal Deadlines. Missing a statute of limitation is one of the most common examples of attorney negligence. Sometimes attorneys file too late out of ignorance; sometimes it is due to law office failure. In a surprising number of cases, attorneys are retained within days after a client is injured, but fail to file a lawsuit until just before – or just after - the Statute of Limitations expires.
A statue of limitations is the legally defined time period for commencing a given type of court proceeding. Legal deadlines may apply to actions required before commencing a court proceeding, or while a proceeding is pending. The following summary of Statute of Limitations and Legal Deadlines is not intended to be complete, but is provided to illustrate just how much there is to know about the subject.
Public Body or Officer. The shortest Statute of Limitations in New York law is that for commencing certain actions against a pubic body or officer – just four months.
Collection of Judgements. The longest is an action to enforce a judgment – twenty years.
Personal Injury & Contracts. The more common time periods for commencing some common actions are those for intentional acts such as assault (one year); for wrongful death (two years); for medical malpractice (two and one half years); for ordinary negligence (three years) and for contracts (six years).
When a Statute Runs. There are special rules for determining when the time period to commence a legal action starts to run, and certain exceptions and extensions to the time periods. The time to commence fraud actions may be extended until the fraud is discovered. The time for children and disabled people to commence actions is extended, or tolled for varying periods of time.
Notices of Claims Against Public Bodies. Notices of claim against various public bodies must be filed within a very short periods of time as a condition to filing suit. The most common such period of time is ninety days as to claims against most municipalities and the State of New York. Some public authorities have even shorter notice of claim periods. The notice of claim period against the United States is two years. In addition to these notice of claim periods, actions against public entities are governed by special statutes of limitations that often are shorter than those against private parties.
Notice of Appeal. There are also specific time periods within which certain legal notices must be given. A notice of appeal must be filed within thirty days after service of the order appealed from.
It is unlikely that any attorney alive knows every time limitation by heart, but attorneys are legally obliged to comply with all of them. When we are retained and before we recommend bringing a lawsuit against a lawyer for missing a Statute of Limitations or a Legal Deadline, our legal malpractice lawyers patiently and meticulously investigate all of the underlying facts known to the client's prior lawyer. Cases that are found to have merit are aggressively prosecuted.
McCarthy Fingar's legal malpractice lawyers are dedicated to our clients' success. If you think you may require our assistance or have any questions, please contact Joseph J. Brophy by email (jbrophy@mccarthyfingar.com) or by phone (914-385-1021).
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