Video: What Is the Elder Abuse Statute of Limitations in California?

If you have questions about your statute of limitations, it’s important that you contact an attorney so they can make a real evaluation because there are a lot of complex issues that go into evaluating a statute of limitations and if it’s something that you miss, you’re barred from filing your case, so full stop. So it’s really important that you contact an attorney so they can help you determine what the applicable statute of limitations is. That being said, in an elder abuse case you have two years from the date of the injury or the date that you discovered the injury. But “asterisk” in a lot of these elder abuse claims there are also issues of medical malpractice and in medical malpractice cases you only have one year from the date of injury or the date of discovery to bring the claim and so you always want to (if you can) contact an attorney well before that one-year mark so that they can determine independently – Do you have a medical malpractice case? Do you have an elder abuse case? Do you have both? And they can make sure to protect your statute of limitations and make sure that your case is timely filed. I should also mention that if the case involves a wrongful death, meaning that someone passed away as a result of neglect, you often have two years from the date of the death to file the case, but once again if it involves medical malpractice that can change. And one final factor that can affect your statute of limitations is whether or not a public entity was responsible. We have a lot of, especially here in California, we have a lot of regulations about public entities and they often have much shorter deadlines within which you must bring your claim forward. It’s often as short of six months. So as soon as you know or suspect that something is going on that’s affecting a family member, I recommend that you contact an attorney and they can immediately determine your statute of limitations and make sure to protect it.