A personal injury case entails a person claiming compensation for the suffering due to an injury as a result some other party’s negligence. Personal injury cases involve injuries including, but not limited to, auto accidents, slip and fall’s, product liability, as well as medical malpractice cases.
Statute of Limitations
Unlike several other states, Maine gives a SIX YEAR time frame for filing a personal injury claim in the court. This time frame is called the statute of limitation time. Certain valid key points should be noted before filing a claim:
- The time period of six years begins from the day when the incident took place.
- The claim should be filed during the advised period for attaining any benefits.
- Once the statute of limitations expires, the victim is bound to miss out on the opportunity of getting the claim.
Vehicle Insurance Criteria to Claim Compensation
state of Maine follows a “fault” system for handling car insurance in personal injury cases. Under this system, the insurance claims in a personal injury case can be settled on the basis of the following policies:
- A personal injury claim can be settled from one’s own insurance policy.
- A personal injury claim can be settled from the insurance company of the at fault party.
- A personal injury claim can be pursued by filing an official lawsuit against the at-fault party in a court of law.
Comparative Fault Rules in Maine
Maine is known for implementing a “modified comparative fault rule”. Under this rule, if the injured person is found to be partially at fault in the injury incident, then his or her compensation amount will be reduced by the percentage he or she shares in the fault. However, if the injured party shares 50% or more of the fault, then he or she is ineligible to receive any compensation. This point can be explained with the help of a suitable EXAMPLE:
Suppose a person is driving through an intersection where he is well above the defined speed limit. All of a sudden, another driver hits his car after taking a wrong turn. In this case, the driver being injured is also shares a fault of 15% as he was driving over the speed limit. Thus the damages awarded, which could have been $10,000, will get reduced to $8500 due to Maine’s “modified comparative fault rule”. Hence, this is how the “modified comparative fault law” is known to work in the state of Maine.
Damage Caps in Personal Injury Cases
Maine has set damage caps for personal injury cases on non-economic losses. The further damage caps rules are as follows:
- A damage cap of $500,000 is set for the cases of wrongful deaths coming under non-economic category.
- There are no damage caps for any other personal injury case types.
