Miscellaneous FAQ’s

In general, the Statute of Limitations in Massachusetts for negligence actions is three years. If the victim is a minor, that Statute of Limitations does not run out until his 21 st birthday.

However, there are some exceptions. If the claim is being made against the Federal Government, Commonwealth of Massachusetts or an organization such as the M.B.T.A., there are shorter time limits. Sometimes, the Statute can be extended if the Defendant concealed the wrong doing or if the relation of the injury to the accident could not reasonably be known to the victim.

Supermarket fall down cases often involve a person slipping on liquid or something similar. Until recently, the victim had to prove that the liquid was on the floor for a period of time long enough that the store owner should have known about it and fixed it. This was usually a difficult to impossible task.

However, case law now says that if the store owner has a self-service mode of operation, and the injury was reasonably foreseeable, it may not be necessary to prove how long the problem had existed.

A very simple, but completely wrong, method is to simply multiply the amount of medical bills or wage loss by some number to determine the value of the case. This method has never worked in the past, and never will.

The value of a Personal Injury Case is usually based on three things;

1. Loss of wages or loss of earning capacity in the past, present and what is reasonably expected in the future.
2. Medical bills incurred in the past, present and also what are reasonably expected in the future.
3. “Pain and suffering”. This over worked phrase is an attempt to describe compensation for the nature of the injury and the way it affects a particular person. Every person’s case is different and special. There is a huge difference in the value of cases where an injury is temporary as opposed to an injury that is permanent. There is no easy way to determine the value of a case. Only an experienced attorney can do that.