If you have been injured, then you might be relying on an insurance claim to get compensation. After all, medical bills and mental suffering can add up to quite a bit. However, your insurance claim might not necessarily be your best option. Instead, you might want to think about whether a personal injury lawsuit is right for you. To help you weigh your options, you should be aware of a variety of laws in the state in which you are planning to file. Here is one specific law that you need to be aware of when filing in Minnesota, the statute of limitations.

You Need to Follow the Statute of Limitations

Assuming that you have a solid case, your first and biggest concern is often whether you are within the statute of limitations. Every state puts a timer on every personal injury case, with the clock starting to tick from the date of the incident. In Minnesota, the number in question is 2 years. If your case actually falls into the category of medical malpractice, then you actually have 6 years instead.

If your injuries were not actually discovered until much later or if you were a minor when the injury happened, then you can get an extension on your window of opportunity.

Discovery

Injuries that were not discovered until much later can be relatively hard to prove, and often fit into a small number of categories. Exposure to toxic chemicals is often valid grounds for the discovery rule, since some potential side effects of certain chemicals might not show up for decades. If you do think that you can cite the discovery rule, you should make sure that you can actually prove the link between your discovered injury and the incident for which you are suing.

This can be a bit more difficult when it comes to medical malpractice cases, where your window of opportunity might be limited by the date on which you last received treatment.

Minors

If a minor wants to file, then they will need to wait until they are legally an adult to file on their own behalf. This can obviously create a problem if a 15-year-old wants to file a personal injury lawsuit. After 2 years, they would only be 17 and thus not legally an adult. Therefore, most cases will allow the suing minor to sue within 2 years of becoming an adult, which often means that they can file anywhere from their 18^th to 20^th birthdays.

To be extremely specific, the deadline can be extended by 5 years for a minor, potentially resulting in a 7 year window.