This week, the State Supreme Court released an opinion having incredible impact on Georgia personal injury cases including car and truck accidents. Ruling that plaintiffs bringing personal injury lawsuits for car accidents and trucking accidents may have additional time to file their lawsuits based on whether the at-fault driver received a citation. The Court relied on the Official Code of Georgia § 9-3-99 which provides that in any tort action arising out of the commission of a crime the two year statute of limitation is tolled or "paused" from the date of the crime until the prosecution of the crime is final, so long as it does not exceed six years from the time of the injury. The Supreme Court found that traffic citations are crimes because they are misdemeanors.
How does this apply? In the case before the court, the plaintiff was a passenger in a car which was rear-ended in an accident near Fort Stewart on April 27, 2005. The at-fault driver was issued a citation for following too closely which was paid and disposed of about three weeks after the accident on May 19, 2005. Under the Court's new ruling, the time clock for the two year personal injury statute of limitations didn't begin to run until the ticket was taken care of either by payment of a fine or disposition in court meaning this plaintiff, had until May 19, 2007 to file her lawsuit.
This is not to say that it is wise to wait until the last minute to file a lawsuit - evidence is lost, memories grow weak, and you often lose the ability to thoroughly investigate your case because you are rushing to meet the statute of limitations. However, it is nice to know that for now, or at least until the Legislature changes the law to prevent tolling for traffic citations, people injured in accidents have a little more breathing room before filing their lawsuits.
Read more on this case Beneke v. Parker.
