{"id":1684,"date":"2008-02-05T09:09:40","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T14:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/tolling_the_statute_of_limitat\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:09:13","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T21:09:13","slug":"tolling-the-statute-of-limitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/tolling-the-statute-of-limitat\/","title":{"rendered":"TOLLING THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS IN TORT CASES FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Georgia personal injury lawyers know, the typical statute of limitations for a bodily injury case in Georgia is two years from the date of the occurence at issue. However, in cases involving victims of criminal acts <\/a>who have potential civil causes of actions against those who brought about injury to them, there are some nuances of Georgia law that all attorneys in this field should know.
\nThe purpose of this entry is to acquaint the Plaintiff\u2019s bar with a very important but little known statute. The statute at issue, O.C.G.A. \u00a7 9-3-99, was passed as part of the \u201cCrime Victims Restitution Act of 2005.\u201d It became effective July 1, 2005 and reads as follows:
\nThe running of the period of limitations with respect to any cause of action in tort that may be brought by the victim of an alleged crime which arises out of the facts and circumstances relating to the commission of such alleged crime committed in this state shall be tolled from the date of the commission of the alleged crime or the act giving rise to such action in tort until the prosecution of such crime or act has become final or otherwise terminated, provided that such time does not exceed six (6) years.
\nGiven that virtually every automobile accident <\/a>involves misdemeanor criminal charges against a negligent driver (who presumably violated the Georgia Uniform Rules of the Road and was charged via a citation), it is submitted that in virtually every automobile accident tort case, this statute could potentially extend the statute of limitations from 2 years to 6 years. The same is true for any tort case (particularly intentional torts) resulting in criminal charges against a defendant. While the new statute has yet to be interpreted by any Georgia court, there are many interesting legal issues that may emerge in the future with respect to it.
\nOur firm first became aware of this statute in the context of two wrongful death actions we were prosecuting on behalf of separate families in Canada. These two deaths had occurred in a very bad tractor-trailer accident. While preparing those cases for trial, we contacted another person who had been injured in the same accident. This particular person lived in the state of Florida. When we first contacted the individual about providing a deposition for our cases, two years had already passed since the accident occurred. The witness, nonetheless, asked if our firm could assist him in bringing claims against the trucking company responsible for the collision. Because of the passage of time and also because we had a conflict of interest representing a witness we needed to depose for our other clients, we declined. However, when we later settled the two wrongful death cases and advised the witness his deposition was no longer needed, he again asked if we could be of service to him. Even though the otherwise applicable two-year statute of limitations had arguably run, because the tractor-trailer driver had been charged with vehicular homicide in connection with the deaths in our other two cases and because our conflict no longer existed, we agreed to file claims on the new client\u2019s behalf and to assert in his case that the statute of limitations had been tolled since he was a \u201cvictim\u201d of a crime which had been committed in this state.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Georgia personal injury lawyers know, the typical statute of limitations for a bodily injury case in Georgia is two years from the date of the occurence at issue. However, in cases involving victims of criminal acts who have potential civil causes of actions against those who brought about injury to them, there are some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury-wrongful-death","tag-personal-injury"],"yoast_head":"\nTOLLING THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS IN TORT CASES FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME — Trial Attorney Blog — February 5, 2008<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As Georgia personal injury lawyers know, the typical statute of limitations for a bodily injury case in Georgia is two years from the date of the — February 5, 2008\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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