Good to Know: How Statute of Limitations is like Final Jeopardy

August 20th, 2010. By Kristine B

I’ll wager a bet. If every time you took a prescription drug you heard the “Final Jeopardy” theme song (aka, “Think Music”) in the background to alert you that time could be ticking away on your ability to recover any damages for side effects you may be having from the meds, well, you’d be mighty aware of the concept of statute of limitations. You’d also probably avoid hearing Alex Trebec say, “Oh, I’m sorry…time is up…” But alas, statutes of limitations have this way of lurking quietly in the background—unnoticed until it’s too late.

Lots of legal articles mention the statute of limitations, but many people don’t know what it actually means or how it affects them. They also don’t know how complex figuring out the statute of limitations can be. So this week, Pleading Ignorance examines the Statute of Limitations and the complex role it plays in prescription drug lawsuits. 

We previously posted about the statute of limitations. Basically, the statute of limitations sets out how long a potential plaintiff has to file a lawsuit following an alleged wrong. So, for example: if the statute of limitations in a personal injury case is two years and you’re in a car accident on Feb 1, 2010, you have until Feb 1, 2012 to file a lawsuit. 

Now, you may ask, why even have a statute of limitations? After all, if someone wronged someone else it shouldn’t matter how long it takes to file the lawsuit–wrong is wrong, right? Well, wrong. Let’s take a look at some simple examples. Think about the car accident above. Say it’s now five or eight years later. And say that now the victim has some new physical maladies—like maybe joint pain that limits movement—and the victim is blaming it on the accident. Oh, but by the way, osteoporosis and arthritis run in the victim’s family. Hmm. Now we’re in muddy waters and can’t really figure out just what’s attributable to the accident.

And think of it another way—say part of a tree—yourtree—falls on your neighbors house, and damages a window. The neighbor drags their heels on doing any repairs. Fast-forward a bit and now the neighbor comes after you with a lawsuit claiming there is water damage caused by a leak from that branch falling eons ago. What’s your reaction? I’ll tell you: “Hell no it ain’t from that branch!” So there are reasons why time limits are put on someone’s ability to file a lawsuit.

Sounds simple so far, right? Not so fast. The statute of limitations varies by state and by type of wrong. So in one state there may be a two-year statute of limitations on personal injury cases but a six-year statute of limitations on property damage.  Another state may have a three-year statute of limitations for personal injury. 

Even in relatively straight-forward cases, the statute of limitations can make things complex, but when you enter the murky world of pharmaceutical litigation, things get downright tricky. 

Because different states have different statutes of limitations and because the plaintiff may be in a different state than the defendant, it becomes critical to determine where the lawsuit will be tried. 

Furthermore, the statute of limitations starts running when the harm has occurred or when the victim becomes aware of the harm (or should have been aware of the harm). But for patients, determining when the harm occurred, or when the harm was linked to the medication, can be tricky. 

Some patients suffer side effects from medications for years without realizing the medication is linked to their health problems. Even if there is a warning from the FDA about a drug, if the patient isn’t diagnosed by a doctor, he may have no reason to suspect a drug is causing him harm. For many drugs, the statute of limitations runs once the FDA has issued a warning or announced a new black box label on a drug, but not all patients link their health problems to the medication at this point.

That’s an important part of this that’s worth repeating: …the statute of limitations runs once the FDA has issued a warning or announced a new black box label on a drug. Unfortunately, many patients who become aware that a side effect is specifically related to a drug find themselves outside of the statute of limitations for litigation for that drug—that is, they connect the dots too late to really do anything about it. And that’s why sites like LawyersAndSettlements.com, and law firms and consumer advocate groups, share the “need to file by” dates with consumers—see our Heparin and Avandia post on statute of limitations.  

The bottom line? If you think you’ve been harmed by a medication, the sooner you speak to a lawyer the better. The last thing you want to hear is that you could have had a case against the drug company, but you let too much time pass before talking to a lawyer. 

And, don’t leave it until the statute of limitations is almost up. After all, the lawyer still has to collect evidence before a lawsuit can be filed. Collecting evidence takes time, too.

Tags: Pleading Ignorance, Statute of Limitations

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