Those Who Wait

Our law firm did not participate in the lawsuit described in this article.

 

A woman was injured in an automobile accident on August 2, 2006. Her attorney filed a lawsuit on her behalf on July 30, 2009, a mere four days prior to the running of the statute of limitations.[1] [2]

 

The injured plaintiff then had by statute 90 days in which to serve the complaint. As is often the case when waiting until the statute has almost run, there were problems serving within the 90-day window of time.

 

The attorney was not able to have the defendant driver served at the address supplied by the driver’s insurance company. The address was out of date.

 

The attorney improperly a subpoena on the insurance company seeking a current address. The company provided the same out of date address and a post office box.

 

The attorney brought a motion to serve by mail at the post office box address. The trial court denied the motion for two reasons. One was that the court found the attorney produces no evidence of efforts made to locate the defendant, a showing required before service by mail can be authorized. Second, service by mail to a post office box is not authorized. A street address is required.

The trial court awarded attorney fees to defendants and their insurance company for having to respond to the motion.

 

The attorney for the injured woman appealed. The Washington Court of Appeals upheld the trial court.

 

This is another example of what can happen if an injury claimant waits until the last minute to file a lawsuit. A lot of things can happen in three years. People move, and/or change insurance companies, for instance.

 

The injured woman’s attorney argued that the insurance company was refusing to provide a current address in an effort to intentionally frustrate efforts at service. Perhaps. Perhaps not. It is just as possible that the information was all the company had.

 

Ninety days is not a lot of time to assure proper service, as this case and many others like it illustrate. Yet too often an attorney will wait until the statute is about to run to file the case.

 

When it comes to the statute of limitations, bad things come to those who wait.



[1] Defelice v. Jones, unpublished opinion (No. 29231-2-III,

[2] There were four days remaining on the statute of limitations rather than three as August 02, 2009 fell on a Sunday.

Posted in Auto Accidents and tagged .