The Rules Concerning Catastrophic Injury Lawsuits in Nevada

A catastrophic injury is an injury that results in a permanent physical disability; these can include brain or spinal cord injuries and loss of limbs. If someone sustains a catastrophic injury because of an accident, and it can be proven that the accident resulted from an error or negligence on the part of someone other than the injured person, then the injured person has a strong case for a personal injury lawsuit.

In fictionalized depictions of personal injury lawsuits, you might see judges awarding huge sums of money to accident victims simply on account of the plaintiffs’ immense suffering. The reality of the law is more complicated than that. Not every accident that results in a terrible injury can be the basis of a personal injury lawsuit.

Plaintiffs must follow a strict procedure in personal injury lawsuits, and the amounts of money awarded are not determined by trying to put a price on the happiness the plaintiff has missed out on because of his or her injury. Here are some rules and laws that play a role in injury lawsuits in Nevada.

Statute of Limitations

If you are injured in an accident, you must file the lawsuit no more than two years after the date of the accident, since this is the Nevada statute of limitations for personal injury cases. If you wait longer than that, most courts in Nevada will reject your case for not having been filed within the legal time limit.

Shared Fault 

Nevada law recognizes that most accidents are not entirely one person’s fault; they are usually due to a combination of factors. It is not necessarily the case that, if you sustained catastrophic injuries in the accident, but the defendant was not injured at all, that the defendant bears 100% of the responsibility for the accident. The court must decide on a case by case basis how the fault in the accident should be divided.

Economic and Non-Economic Damages

People injured in accidents can receive compensation for the medical bills they incurred because of the accident, as well as for the money they lost from not being able to work because of their injuries. This compensation is known as economic damages, and in Nevada, the amount of economic damages you can receive in an injury lawsuit is theoretically unlimited. If the medical treatments you require because of your injuries are very expensive, and if medical experts determine that you will never be well enough to work again, you may receive a high amount in economic damages.

Brock Ohlson Can Help with Catastrophic Injury Lawsuits

If you have suffered a permanent, severe injury in an accident, receiving a monetary award for your required medical care can help you move on with your life.

Contact Brock Ohlson, Nevada’s Personal Injury Lawyer, for a consultation about your case.