Statute of Limitations - Part 1

Hi guys, I'm Chris Parks. I'm a personal injury lawyer in Boulder, Colorado.

I was asked the other day, what is the Statute of Limitations? Well, it just means the amount of time that you have to file a lawsuit after you've been injured. Every state and every type of injury, actually every type of action, usually has some sort of Statute of Limitations.

So just to give you a simple example. You have a written contract with somebody, and they don't perform on the contract. You want to do something about it. You're owed money and they're not paying you. You have a Statute of Limitations. You have a limited amount of time to file a lawsuit over that breach of contract. And if you let that time period go by, you can never go back and claim money damages again.

So, Statute of Limitations just means an amount of time, under the law, that you have to take action, file a lawsuit on your own behalf, after which time you can never go back and file a lawsuit.