Please don't wait. The Statute of Limitations won't.
You may or may not know what a Statute of Limitation is. For those that don't here you go.
Whenever you have been injured, you are given a certain amount of time to file a lawsuit. The amount of time you have varies widely depending on what state you are in or what law is being applied. The amount of time you have can be a few months to many years. If you miss that time period, then you may never be able to file.
Why am I bringing this up? We just reviewed a case where the claim would have been against the US Federal Government. You see these kinds of claims when a child is born in a governement hospital such as in military or VA hospitals. In this situation you are usually either applying the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) or the Military Claims Act (MCA). Well, these laws set the statute of limitations at 2 years. That is it. So the problem shows up when you have a birth injury case and you wait more than two years from the birth of the child, then you MAY be too late to file a claim. (Here's the disclaimer...Each case is different you MUST find out for your own case whether the statute of limitation has passed or not. Do NOT just rely on what you just read.) Why do I say that? Sometimes, after a proper investigation, you find out that the person responsible is not covered by the same laws and the time limit is different, or there is another legal cause of the injury.
That's what a Statute of Limitation does. It puts an ending date on the claim. If you miss the deadline, then you will never be able to file a claim. That's what happened in the case we reviewed. The child was born in a military hospital and too much time had passed since the birth, so there is nothing we can do to bring a case.
So, don't wait when you think that you might have a case. You need to talk to a lawyer and find out what the time limitations are. The general explanation I just gave up above is just that, general. Go get your case reviewed by an experienced lawyer.
Do you know the statue of limitations to file a medical lawsuit in the case of Cerebral Palsy in the state of Virginia?
I am not a Virginia Lawyer, so first things first. You do need to talk with a Virginia lawyer to get a good answer on what the Virginia Statute of Limitations is. Now, with that said, here is a website that lists the medical malpractice Statutes of Limitation for the 50 states. It's a good place to start.
http://www.mcandl.com/virginia.html