When someone else’s careless actions leave you injured, your right to fair compensation isn’t automatic—you must prove that the other party is liable for your injuries as well as what those injuries are.  Importantly, you have a limited time to commence an action to seek compensation for a personal injury. South Dakota’s personal injury laws set strict deadlines, known as statutes of limitations (or statutes of repose), that determine how long you have to take legal action. Missing that deadline results in your claim being barred and forfeiting the compensation you may have been legally entitled to—whether it’s for medical bills, lost income, or the long-term impact of your injuries. 

At Thomas Braun Bernard & Burke, LLP, we help injury victims in Rapid City and throughout South Dakota take action before time runs out. Our team is here to ensure that you don’t miss critical filing deadlines or overlook key opportunities to hold the responsible party accountable. Contact us today for the guidance and advocacy you need to pursue what you are owed. 

The South Dakota Personal Injury Statutes of Limitation: Your Time Limit to File

In South Dakota, most personal injury lawsuits must be filed within three years from the date the injury occurred. This statute of limitations typically applies to cases involving car accidents, slip and falls, dog bites, and other injuries caused by someone else’s negligence. If you don’t commence a lawsuit within that time, your case may be dismissed, and your chance to recover damages for your medical expenses, lost income, or pain and suffering may be lost.

Important Note:  The 3-Year Rule Does Not Apply to All Injury Claims

Although many personal injuries must be commenced within three years, the three-year timeline doesn’t apply in every case. There are different statutes of limitation (or statutes of repose) depending on the type of claim and/or the type of party at-fault.  As just a couple of examples, medical malpractice claims are subject to a two-year statute of limitations, claims against a municipality for personal injury must be commenced within two years, and claims for torts against the State must be commenced within one year.

In addition, certain claims require an extra time-sensitive step that must be completed in advance of commencing any lawsuit. In South Dakota, you cannot pursue a claim against a public entity (e.g. the State and its agencies, boards and commissions; municipalities; counties; school districts; townships; and sewer and irrigation districts) or its employees unless written notice of the time, place, and cause of the injury is given to the public entity within one hundred eighty (180) days of the injury. And, there is a statute specifying to whom such written notice must be given. If such notice is not timely submitted, your claim will be barred.

Don’t assume that your injury claim will be subject to a three-year statute of limitations. Instead, talk with an attorney to confirm the applicable statute of limitations and/or statute of repose.  Additionally, even if you believe you have plenty of time, waiting can put your case at a disadvantage. Physical evidence can be lost, witnesses may become harder to locate, and insurance companies may use any delay against you. The sooner you act, the better your chances of building a strong case and securing the compensation you deserve.

South Dakota's Unique Comparative Negligence Rule

South Dakota’s comparative negligence rule is uniquely different from other states. Under this rule, if negligence on your part contributed to the accident, the key consideration is whether your negligence was more than “slight” when compared to the negligence of the other party:

1. If your negligence was more than “slight,” you may not recover any damages from the other party–even if he/she was, without question, primarily at fault.
2. If your negligence was “slight” or less than “slight,” you are not barred from recovering, but the jury must reduce your damages in proportion to the amount of your contributory negligence.

This system differs from standard comparative negligence models, where the injured party’s damages are simply reduced based on his/her portion of fault. Instead, under South Dakota law, even a small amount of blame (i.e., more than “slight” negligence on your part) can completely block recovery.

South Dakota’s comparative negligence rule can have harsh results. That’s why having a legal team that understands how to interpret and apply this unique rule is critical when pursuing a personal injury claim in South Dakota.

Proving Negligence in a South Dakota Personal Injury Case

Proving negligence is at the heart of any personal injury claim in South Dakota, and it requires more than just showing that someone made a mistake. You need to demonstrate that the other party had a legal duty, that they breached that duty (i.e. failed to use reasonable care), that their actions caused your injuries, and the nature and extent of your injuries. This process can be difficult to navigate, especially when you’re dealing with physical pain, emotional stress, or financial strain after an accident. An experienced personal injury attorney can guide you through the legal process, helping you gather the right evidence, interpret the law, and build a case that tells your story.

To prove negligence in a South Dakota personal injury case, you need to establish:

• Duty: The defendant had a legal responsibility to act with reasonable care
• Breach: They failed to meet that responsibility
• Causation: Their failure caused your injuries and damages
• Damages: The nature, extent, and amount of your damages

A personal injury attorney can also help you pursue the full value of your claim, not just the obvious medical bills or property damage, but the future impact as well. That might include long-term medical care, missed work, lost earning potential, and even the cost of therapy or mobility aids. At Thomas Braun Bernard & Burke, LLP, our attorneys also know how to investigate if more than one party shares responsibility, which can make a meaningful difference in your compensation. 

Common Personal Injury Cases Affected by These Laws

Personal injury laws in South Dakota apply to a wide range of accidents and incidents where someone is harmed due to another’s carelessness or recklessness. If you or someone you love has been injured, we know the impact can be life-altering. Common personal injury cases affected by these laws include:

• Car, motorcycle, and truck accidents
• Slip and fall or premises liability incidents
• Dog bites or animal attacks
• Wrongful death
• Workplace injuries caused by a third-party (i.e., a party not associated with the employer)
• Defective product injuries

At Thomas Braun Bernard & Burke, LLP, we are honored to stand with individuals and families during some of their hardest moments, working to help them find justice, stability, and hope for what lies ahead. Each case is personal, and we take great pride in helping injured South Dakotans get their lives back on track after an injury and move toward a brighter future.

Don't Miss Deadlines or Lose Compensation: Consult a Rapid City Personal Injury Lawyer

If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s actions, you should act promptly. South Dakota’s statutes of limitation may seem generous, but time passes quickly, especially when you’re dealing with medical appointments, insurance companies, or time away from work. Waiting too long to speak with a lawyer can mean potentially losing your ability to seek the compensation you’re entitled to for the harm you’ve suffered.

At Thomas Braun Bernard & Burke, LLP, we’re here to help you take the right steps without delay. We understand what’s at stake, and we’re committed to helping you protect your rights, build a strong case, and pursue the full value of your claim. Don’t let a legal deadline stand between you and the justice you deserve. Contact Thomas Braun Bernard & Burke, LLP today.

When someone causes a serious car accident and leaves you with major injuries, there is no guarantee that you will receive the compensation you need to cover the costs and damages that you will incur. Injuries from a car accident alone often result in thousands of dollars in medical bills, and you will typically also incur other types of damages in addition to pain and suffering, such as lost wages due to being unable to work.

What can you do after an accident to increase the likelihood of receiving fair compensation for your injuries and damages?

Gather information

If you are able to secure the at-fault driver’s information promptly after an accident, it is in your best interest to do so. The at-fault driver’s full name, address, telephone number, driver’s license number, and insurance information are critical, but there are other things you can collect as well.

Regardless of whether they are taken by you, a relative, or a friend that day, or even the next day, numerous photographs and/or videos of both vehicles and the accident scene are also important. Consider also whether a surveillance camera at a nearby business may have recorded the accident.

This type of information helps explain to the at-fault driver’s insurance company who was at fault and conveys the nature and force of the impact you sustained. This, in turn, aids in securing fair compensation for your injuries and damages.

Finally, because sometimes we forget the details surrounding an accident, take a few minutes to jot down what you can recall in the moments leading up to the accident, during the accident itself, and after the accident. Information that is good to write down includes:

• Whether you were moving or parked
• What lane you were in
• How fast you were going
• Weather conditions
• What the at-fault driver did or did not do
• What, if anything, the at-fault driver (or anyone else) said immediately after the accident

See a doctor

If you believe that you were injured, you should get checked out by a doctor as soon after the accident as practical. In addition to treating your injuries and getting you on the road to recovery, a doctor’s examination will document the injuries you sustained in the accident.

That examination will create a benchmark of your condition/injuries at that time, which helps document the improvement or worsening of your condition/injuries. Without such medical reports, it is challenging to prove that your injuries were, in fact, due to the accident or the nature and extent of your injuries.

Consider contacting an attorney

This may be the first time you were injured in a car accident and forced to negotiate with an insurance company. However, it is not the insurance company’s first time.

Insurance adjusters handle personal injury claims every day and are skilled at negotiating settlements favorable to the insurance company. An attorney can be extremely helpful after an accident because he/she will be familiar with the “Rules of Road” and demonstrating why the at-fault driver is liable.

An attorney will also know what compensation you are entitled to under the law (including potential future damages) and will be adept at conveying the nature and extent of your injuries/damages. An attorney’s skills and experience are important when attempting to secure a recovery that fully and fairly compensates you.

In the meantime, you can focus on what is most important—working toward recovering from your injuries.

Workers across the region that operate heavy machinery and equipment essential to their industries (e.g., oil and coal extraction, manufacturing, construction, etc.) and operators of tractor-trailers (18-wheelers) and other commercial vehicles expect these products to be safe. Good-faith reliance on the safety of products is also a given for homeowners when using household appliances and when using power tools, as well as farmers and ranchers that use various types of equipment. Likewise, parents across the Dakotas count on their young children being able to safely interact with their toys.

In fact, it is a bedrock principle of the American economic and legal systems that products sold to the public should not only work as advertised, but perform safely when used as intended. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. In fact, a significant number of individuals are harmed–sometimes seriously, sometimes fatally–by defective products every day. That is obviously tragic in every case, but rendered more troubling by this sad fact: such injuries routinely do not occur absent a failure by a designer, manufacturer, or seller which resulted in the product being defective such that it was unreasonably dangerous to the injured person.

The product liability realm: Different legal theories by which a manufacturer can be held liable for dangerous products.

As stated above, virtually no demographic among South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and the rest of the country is spared from the dangers of defective products. However, not every product-related injury guarantees financial compensation to the injured person.

In South Dakota, there are generally two different legal theories by which a manufacturer can be held liable for a defective product that resulted in injury: strict liability or negligence.

Under strict liability, the injured person need not show “fault” or “negligence” on the part of the manufacturer. Instead, the injured person must prove the following:

1. That the product was in a defective condition which made it unreasonably dangerous to the injured person;
2. The defect existed at the time it left the manufacturer’s control;
3. The product was expected to and did reach the user without a substantial unforeseeable change in the condition it was in when it left the manufacturer’s control; and
4. The defective condition was a legal cause of the injuries.

Establishing that a product was defective often focuses on the design of the product (e.g., a problem with the calculations directing its manufacture) or the manufacture of the product (e.g., mistakes or failures in the actual building or assembly of the product).

In contrast, to recover for injuries caused by a defective product under a theory of negligence, the injured person must prove that the manufacturer failed to use the requisite amount of care in designing or manufacturing the product. This requires proving that the designer or manufacturer failed to exercise the care that a reasonably careful designer or manufacturer would use in similar circumstances to avoid exposing the user to a foreseeable risk of harm.

A manufacturer can also sometimes be liable for injuries if the manufacturer failed to provide adequate warning of an unreasonable danger associated with a foreseeable use of its product. Similar to a defective design/manufacture claim, a failure to warn claim can be maintained based upon a theory of strict liability or negligence.

Injuries caused by dangerous products can result in catastrophic injuries that yield life-upending changes for the injured person and his/her family.  If you happen to be injured by a product while at work, at home, or at play, keep in mind that the manufacturer, designer, or seller may be liable for your injuries. If you believe that you were injured by a defective product, you are welcome to call the attorneys at Thomas Braun Bernard & Burke, LLP.

If asked about the insurance policy on their car, pickup, or motorcycle, most drivers would be able to discuss their liability coverage, and many could tell you the amount of liability coverage that they have. Many drivers, however, are less familiar with two other types of coverage found in most policies – uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage.

Liability coverage protects you in the event that you cause an accident, such as by paying to repair the other party’s vehicle, paying for the other party’s medical expenses if he/she is injured, paying for an attorney to defend you if you are sued, etc. Uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage also protect you, but in a different way.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage: Generally, if you are injured by a driver that does not have insurance (i.e., an “uninsured motorist”), uninsured motorist coverage enables you to recover for your injuries/damages from your own insurance company. As an example, if the uninsured motorist coverage limit under your policy is $100,000, and you are injured by a driver that does not have insurance, you could potentially recover up to $100,000 from your insurance company depending upon the extent of your injuries/damages.

Underinsured Motorist Coverage: Generally, if you are injured by a driver that has insurance, but his/her insurance is insufficient to compensate you for your injuries/damages (i.e., an “underinsured motorist”), underinsured motorist coverage enables you to recover additional compensation for your injuries/damages from your own insurance company once you have exhausted the at-fault driver’s liability coverage. As an example, if the underinsured motorist coverage limit under your policy is $100,000, and you are injured by a driver that has only $25,000 in liability coverage, you could potentially recover an additional $75,000 from your insurance company (i.e., the difference between your underinsured motorist coverage limit of $100,000 and the at-fault driver’s liability coverage limit of $25,000). However, using this same example, if the underinsured motorist coverage limit under your policy is $50,000, you could only potentially recover an additional $25,000 (i.e., the difference between your underinsured motorist coverage limit of $50,000 and the at-fault driver’s liability coverage limit of $25,000). As before, whether you could recover an additional $25,000 would depend upon the extent of your injuries/damages.

Aside from the fact that it is legally required, liability insurance is important because it protects you, financially, in the event that you cause an accident. However, uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage are equally important because they may be your only source of compensation if you are injured by a driver who is uninsured, or whose insurance limits are woefully inadequate to compensate you for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Talk with your agent about the uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage available under your car, pickup, or motorcycle insurance policy, particularly the amount of coverage that you have. Making sure that you have sufficient coverage will give you peace of mind knowing that compensation will be available in the event that you are injured by an uninsured or underinsured motorist.