Still Injured: Revisiting Your Car Accident Lawsuit Decades After Your Original Hearing
If you were in a car accident several years ago, and the compensation received only satisfied bills and financial problems at that time but you are still hurting, you may want your car accident lawyer to revisit your case. There are some reasons why revisiting your case may be in your best interests. There are a couple of ways you can do this.
Reopen Your Case
If your lawyer requested an open-ended option to your case, or permission to revisit the case in the future if you experienced any other medical issues as a result of your injuries in the accident, your lawyer can file for a reopening of the case. This allows you and your lawyer to pick up the case right where it left off, rather than opening and filing a whole new lawsuit. The same lawyers and people may be involved, so long as the lawyers or older parties have not passed on. There may also be a statute of limitations on your case, depending on the circumstances around it. However, if you asked your lawyer to stay on top of those limitations, then you probably have already appeared in court before to extend the statute of limitations on your case.
Restart Your Case
If your case was previously closed, but you have experienced more and more pain and health issues in recent years, you may want to talk to your lawyer again. If he or she is still practicing, then he or she has your old files and records and can look at filing a new (but related) lawsuit. In conjunction with your old records, you will still need to see doctors for your current symptoms and maladies and confirm with them that these health issues are related to your past accident. Your doctors may need to appear in court as witnesses, so it is important that they are in agreement over your current health conditions.
Other Things to Consider When Revisiting or Reopening Your Old Car Accident Case
If it is a few decades after your accident, you may want to find out if the person deemed responsible for your injuries is still alive. A lot can happen in two or three decades, including the loss of memory that could affect testimony from the other driver. Financial ability to pay is another thing to consider, since anyone in their thirties or forties when he or she hit you may now be on social security or a very restricted income. Even if you won, there is no guarantee that the other driver would be able to pay for your medical care, but that does not mean you should not ask your lawyer to revisit or reopen the case anyway.
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