As the name suggests, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) is a federal law, so the same statute of limitations for FELA claims applies to every state. This is, of course, different from other civil claims like personal injury claims and workers’ compensation claims. Therefore, you must remember this deadline clearly, or risk being permanently barred from pursuing legal actions for injuries and damages incurred from your railroad work. Without further introduction, please continue reading to learn the standard rule for the FELA statute of limitations and how one of the experienced FELA lawyers at Hildebrand McLeod & Nelson LLP can help you bring your case and all its supplementary evidence forward with more than enough time to spare.
What is the basic rule for the FELA statute of limitations?
Generally speaking, if you are an injured railroad worker seeking financial compensation against your negligent railroad company employer, you may be posed with a three-year statute of limitations. More specifically, this means three years from the date of the single accident when your injuries happened. This could also mean three years from the date your injuries from the railroad were reasonably discovered. Simply put, the court finds that three years is a fair amount of time for the plaintiff to get their evidence together, all while the defendant’s and testifying witnesses’ memories are still fresh regarding the claimed accident or injury occurrence.
How does the court interpret the “discovery rule” in a FELA claim?
To reiterate what was alluded to above, the court may not make your deadline three years from the accident date, but rather three years from the date you knew or should have reasonably known that you got injured from your railroad work. This “discovery rule” may apply because your injuries may not have been from your involvement in an isolated accident. Instead, yours may be considered gradual injuries due to your occupational work. For example, later on in life, you may develop hearing loss or experience a repetitive stress injury. Or, you may receive a cancer diagnosis based on your constant exposure to toxic substances like asbestos.
What happens if I get a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis?
To get the court to observe the “discovery rule” for your FELA claim filing date, you must prove that the timeframe in which you received the medical diagnosis for your injuries was reasonable. This is because the argument can be made that if you let your injuries go for too long without medical intervention, they may have gotten exacerbated, along with your claimed economic and non-economic damages. Of course, it is not your fault if you sought medical intervention from early on, but a healthcare professional failed to diagnose you on time or accurately. This may pull you into a separate legal battle with having to file a medical malpractice claim against the negligent healthcare professional. Of course, the statute of limitations for this varies by state.
No matter what specific railroad work matter you are currently dealing with, one of the skilled FELA lawyers at Hildebrand McLeod & Nelson LLP is willing and able to step in and facilitate the process. Retain our legal services today.
