What Are Your Legal Options When Injured in Another State?

There are a large number of reasons why you may decide to venture outside your home state. You may work across the state border, be seeing family, taking a vacation, just happened to pass out during your travels. Interstate travel in the USA is so commonplace most people do not even think about it, and as such there can sometimes be a rather jarring reminder when the differences between states crop up. Most usually, the differences in question are legal ones. Some states have different laws regarding driving, purchasing goods, gun ownership, and drug use, and another difference is in how they handle lawsuits.

This raises the question: just what are your legal options when injured in another state? What difficulties might I encounter?

Usually, the overall gist of the proceedings remains more or less the same. You contact a lawyer in the state where the injury occurred and take the offending party to court. What often catches people off-guard is when they encounter legal differences that exist in states that may present unexpected twists to the claim. These are things your lawyer can assist you with. There are some things you should be aware of though.

Be Wary of Jurisdiction

If you injured in a state such as Florida you will almost always have to bring your claim in Florida. The easiest way to be sure of whether or not a court will be able to try a defendant is to take them to court in the state where the injury occurred. Also be careful in regard to any place where you have purchased a ticket as this may set the jurisdiction for your action. For example, if your are injured on a cruise ship in Florida your ticket will state what court you may bring an action and may have a much shorter time to bring your action than is generally allowed by state law.

Be Wary of Statute of Limitations

Different states have different lengths of the Statute of Limitations. In Florida for a general negligence case (auto accident, slip and fall or injured at a theme park) the statute of limitations is 4 years from the date of the injury. Other states have shorter statute of Limitations, some as short as 1 year.

The bottom line is that when you are injured in another state, it is very important that you immediately contact an attorney in the jurisdiction where you were injured so that you can protect your rights.