Missed Statute of Limitations — Legal Malpractice in Georgia
When an attorney allows the statute of limitations to expire on your case, your right to sue is gone — permanently. The negligent act is complete, the damage is done, and no amount of skill from a new attorney can undo it. This is one of the most common and most devastating forms of legal malpractice.
If your attorney missed a filing deadline that cost you your case, you may be able to recover those losses from the attorney directly. I’m Jacob Rhein, and this is exactly the type of case I handle.
How This Happens
Statute of limitations failures happen for a variety of reasons, including:
- Failure to calendar or track deadlines
- Misidentifying which statute of limitations applies
- Miscalculating when the limitations period began to run
- Failing to account for tolling provisions or discovery rules
- Simple neglect — failing to act on a case for months or years
Georgia Statutes of Limitations Your Attorney Should Have Known
Georgia law imposes different deadlines depending on the type of case. Common ones your attorney should have tracked include:
- Personal injury: 2 years (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33)
- Medical malpractice: 2 years, with a 5-year statute of repose (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71)
- Wrongful death: 2 years
- Contract claims: 4 or 6 years depending on the type
- Property damage: 4 years
- Federal civil rights claims: 2 years in Georgia
Miscalculating these deadlines — even by a single day — can be fatal to a client’s case.
The Case Within a Case
To win a missed statute of limitations malpractice claim, I must prove two things: first, that your attorney negligently allowed the deadline to expire; and second, that your underlying claim had merit and would have resulted in a recovery. This “case within a case” is complex litigation, but it is the core of what I do.
What You Can Recover
If successful, you may recover the value of the claim you lost — essentially, what a jury or settlement would have awarded you in the underlying case — as well as attorney’s fees paid to the negligent lawyer and other out-of-pocket losses.
Don’t wait. The statute of limitations on the malpractice claim itself also runs. Call me at (888) 222-4701 or request a free consultation.