The Houston accident lawyers at Denena & Points understand that few events cause more distress than having your child seriously injured in a traffic accident. After the accident, your first concern will be to ensure that your child obtains necessary medical treatment. In the emotional turmoil following the event, you likely won’t consider just how quickly the medical expenses might add up, or how you could pay them. Your main concern will be doing all that you can to help your child recover.
Our Houston accident lawyers realize that you will want to make sure that those responsible for your child’s injury are brought to justice and that responsible parties are held accountable so that you can obtain the just compensation that your child deserves for the traumatic accident injury. You might not realize that claiming damages following a child’s injury in a wreck is a somewhat different process than for a similarly injured adult.
For one thing, the statute of limitations is different. The statute of limitations is the time by which the law requires you to file a case in court, or your injury claim will be dismissed. The law recognizes an adult as being fully capable of making the decision to file a case and to accept a settlement for a case. Therefore, the statute of limitations requires an adult to file a personal injury case in Texas within two years following the accident.
Texas law does not give the same recognition of inherent competence to a child under 18 years of age. So Texas law gives a child until two years after the 18th birthday to file a personal injury claim. A minor child’s statute of limitations runs two years, but not from the date of the injury. A child’s statute of limitations runs two years from the date that the child achieves adult decision-making competence under the law.
Basically, you could decide to pursue an accident injury compensation claim on behalf of your minor child. Or you could wait and let your child decide whether or not to pursue a claim. But our Houston accident lawyers caution you that the longer you wait to pursue a claim after an accident and injury tale place, the more difficult the case likely will be to prove. Don’t take chances. Don’t wait. If you have a young and injured child, take responsible legal action on your child’s behalf.
To learn more about the necessary steps to achieving a successful injury compensation award, download our Houston accident lawyers’ free book offering essential guidelines to follow after a serious Houston wreck.