Suing Government Entities for Personal Injuries

A personal injury is a legal term that means you have had an injury to your emotions, body, or mine as a wrongdoing of another person, entity, or company. As with a filing any personal injury claims there are certain rules to follow but with government entities, there are special guidelines to follow. One thing that is the same for all personal injury claims is that you will need to hire a personal injury attorney. The reason is that no matter whom you have the personal injury claim against the legal obligations and procedures can be quite complex.

A personal injury can occur in government entities such as:

• A government owned building
• City subways, trains, or buses
• Government officialdoms like the park, library, or post office

When filing a personal injury claim against a government entity the personal injury lawyer can file it against the city, county, federal government, state, public agencies, and public divisions. In order to have a valid claim the personal injury attorney must prove that their client’s injuries and subsequent damages were caused, completely or partially, while they performing their official duties or in a government entity.

The government has a different set of rules that lets the personal injury attorney know what they can be sued for exactly and who can sue them. The attorney must stringently follow a very specific and strict set of guidelines in order to file any personal injury claim against a government entity. One example is that, depending on the state, your personal injury attorney must file a written claim against the specific government entity or agency within thirty to sixty days. If all of the files, forms, and filing fees are not implemented on time and done correctly their client could lose their opportunity to recover any compensation at all. There is also a shorter, stricter statute of limitations, which can range from thirty days to four months unlike the two to six years in regular personal injury claims. In some cases, the personal injury attorney will have to file first a notice of claim to let the government entity know that they wish to sue them instead of just filing a claim.

An example of a valid claim that a personal injury lawyer might file against a government entity would be a city bus or subway accident. If their client were injured while riding on the city bus or subway for reasons of negligence on the behalf of the government their client would most likely have a valid, strong case against the county or city. Some of the negligent things could include the driver being intoxicated while driving, defects with the bus or subway, and reckless driving.