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When you go to a doctor or to the hospital for any sort of procedure, the last thing you want is for something to go wrong. But even if you do not want to think about this possibility, there are times when things go wrong. When this happens, one of the things that comes to mind is the possibility of suing for negligence or for malpractice. If you decide to sue for one of these things, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind, but one of the most important factors is the statute of limitations. To put the statute of limitations quite simply: it essentially sets a limit on how long someone is allowed before their suit is considered to no longer be valid. The specifics of the statute of limitations vary from state to state, and if you are thinking about filing suit yourself you will want to take the time to learn and understand the specifics in place in the state where your procedure took place. The limit on how long a person is allowed to wait before filing a malpractice suit is the basic foundation of the statute of limitations. This allotted time varies from a couple years to several years, and there can be extenuating circumstances that stretch this time even longer. But this basic foundation is in place for those instances where the negative effects of a surgery or operation, or of some sort of negligence, are known right away. The statute of limitations begins immediately in these cases, and generally the person will have between two and four years to file suit. Delayed identification of negative effects is one of the major extenuating circumstances that can extend the statute of limitations. Perhaps a surgery went wrong, but no one knew it at the time, and the adverse effects of the mistake or ommission does not evidence itself until a couple years later. This is why states allow for the statute of limitations to begin late - in this instance, it begins when the negative effects are discovered. Finally, all states also impose an absolute cap on how long people have to file suit, even if the problem is discovered late. For instance, the laws in Massachusetts are very friendly to patients, allowing four years for people to file suit even if the problem is discovered right away; but the absolute cap is set at seven years, which means that if a problem is discovered more than seven years after a surgery, suit can no longer be filed. In Florida, this time is much shorter - being placed at four years. If you are in the unfortunate position of needing to file a malpractice suit, know the statute of limitations in your state, and act accordingly.
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