Personal Injury Statute of Limitations – Oklahoma

I just recieved one of those calls that every attorney fears. A potential client calls telling me how his daughter was hurt seriously in an accident and that he has been unsuccessfully trying to deal with the insurance company for a long time. He stated his daughter had numerous medical bills and needed an attorney. He told me she had back surgery and permanent injuries. For those of us in the legal arena, this would be considered a high value case. As I began to think that we would be able to help this gentleman’s daughter, I asked the big question. When did the accident occur?

The gentleman’s answer shocked me. He said in December 2005. He said the insurance company had been promising the last few years to pay her bills and to pay her when she was fully recovered (she probably never will be). They led him along for over two years and then, in a conversation they had with him one week ago, told him their insured was not obligated to help him. As I found out that their was no uninsured motorist coverage (longer statute of limitations of Oklahoma) I had to tell him that there was nothing we could do to help in.

The moral of the story is this. If your involved in a car accident, trucking accident, motorcycle accident or any other type of personal injury where insurance is invovled, hire an attorney immediately. Hire someone who has experience in those areas. Do not let the insurance company take advantage of you. They will tell you they care, they will promise the moon, but in the end, their goal is to save their company the most money possible by paying you the least amount as possible. Or in the case of this gentleman, dragging the case out past the statute of limitations without ever alerting him to what the statute of limitations was.