If you are hurt on the job as a railroad worker, you may understand your right to file a Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) claim to recover financial compensation. However, you may not know this right can be taken away easily if you do not bring forward this legal claim within a certain deadline. This deadline is otherwise known as the statute of limitations, a widely familiar concept for civil claims such as this one. Without further delay, please continue reading to learn how long you have to submit your FELA claim and how one of the experienced FELA lawyers at Hildebrand McLeod & Nelson LLP can help you do so in a timely manner.
How long do I have to bring forward my FELA claim?
It is worth mentioning that FELA claims are not subject to the statute of limitations of the state where your railroad accident occurred. Rather, across the board, injured railroad workers are given three years from the date of their workplace accident event to bring their legal claim forward. This may benefit you if you come from a state like California which only offers a two-year deadline for personal injury cases.
Even though you have these three years, though, we strongly urge you not to wait until the very last minute to start the filing process. This is because it may take you longer to gather the medical evidence and other types of proof necessary to supplement this legal claim. Plus, the longer you wait, the more it appears that you are not necessarily desperate or in dire need of monetary relief.
What happens to my claim if my diagnosis is delayed?
This three-year statute of limitations may pose a predicament if an incurred illness or injury is inherently delayed. A prime example of this is how many railroad workers are eventually diagnosed with lung cancer due to prolonged exposure to diesel exhaust, asbestos, silica dust, and other carcinogenic substances from their work environment.
In such a situation, there may not have been a specific accident event to start the countdown for the statute of limitations. Instead, the “discovery rule” may come into play and your deadline may be set on the date on which you were diagnosed with or should have reasonably known about your illness or injury.
With this, though, you may have to work harder to establish that you took considerable measures to investigate the cause of your illness or injury, and you can now accurately link it to your time spent as a railroad worker. Otherwise, you may not be granted the opportunity to apply the discovery rule to your claim or to even file a FELA claim altogether.
If you need legal representation urgently, please do not miss another opportunity to schedule an initial consultation with one of the skilled FELA lawyers from Hildebrand McLeod & Nelson LLP. Contact our firm today.
