Your time to pursue a civil case against the daycare is limited by the Kentucky personal injury statute of limitations. According to this law, you have one year from the date of the injury (or the date when you reasonably should have known about the injury) to file your lawsuit.
What This Means—and What It Doesn’t
The statute of limitations requires you to file your lawsuit within one year, but it does not require you to resolve your lawsuit within one year. Accordingly, even if you are currently negotiating with the daycare or its insurer, it is important to make sure that your complaint is properly filed in state court before the year ends. Settlement negotiations may continue after the complaint is filed.
If you do not file a lawsuit on your child’s behalf within one year and you try to do so after the statute of limitation expires, then the defendant will file a motion to dismiss your claim. That motion will be granted by the court—and you will automatically lose your case—unless a relevant exception applies to the statute of limitations.
Don’t Wait for Your Child to Take Action
Your child was the one who was hurt, and the lawsuit that you could file is on behalf of your child. Since minors do not generally have the legal authority to file a lawsuit in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the law allows a minor child to file a personal injury claim within one year of his 18th birthday if no such case has been brought on his behalf before his 18th birthday.
While the law allows this tolling of the statute of limitations, it is not in your child’s best interest for you to wait and have your child bring his own daycare injury lawsuit. The time between when your child is hurt at daycare and his 18th birthday is too significant. Evidence that could have been available will be unattainable, and your child will be denied a legal recovery during all of the years between the time of his injury and his recovery.
Accordingly, as your child’s parent or legal guardian, it is up to you to protect your child’s rights by filing a daycare injury lawsuit before the statute of limitations expires. For more information or for help filing a case, please contact us soon as possible via this website or by phone for a free, no-obligation consultation.
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