Time limits involved in making a claim for personal injuries

It is very important that you act promptly when taking a claim for Personal Injury as there are strict time limits in place. The Statute of Limitations imposes a strict rule in that a Personal Injury action in Ireland must be instituted within two years of the event causing the Personal Injury or within two years of the date of knowledge of such event. The “date of knowledge” in Personal Injury claims for compensation is the date on which it was discovered that an injury existed.

There are some exceptions to this rule:

• If you are a minor the two year period does not commence until your 18th birthday.
• In the case of those who are mentally incapacitated the two year period does not start running until full mental capacity is regained meaning that in many cases time never starts to run and the potential claimant can start legal action many years after the alleged negligent incident.
• In circumstances where you do not know you have been injured for some time and you have taken all reasonable steps to ascertain if you are injured or not, then the two year period may not start running until such time as you have found out that you are injured.

Once an application is lodged with the Injuries Board, the two year period is temporarily stopped for the period of time the application is with the Injuries Board and for six months after it has been released by the Injuries Board.

Bearing the time limits in mind, it is very important that you contact one of our experienced Personal Injury Solicitors as they will be able to offer you helpful and practical advice on whether your claim is affected by the Personal Injury Statute of Limitations.