The legislation sets a time-frame (limitations period) within which affected parties must enforce their rights or enforce their rights or seek redress after an injury, damage, or harm are called Statutes of Limitations. The time frame varies according to the nature of the case. As such, prompt action after any injury, damage, or harm has occurred critical to ensure you do not lose your rights.
Utah medical malpractice law is a highly regulated area of law and has a specific statute of limitation that applies to it.
The medical malpractice statute of limitations in Utah is two years from the date an injury was or should have been discovered. There is a “maximum” limit of four years, or statute of repose, meaning that no case can be filed more than four years from the injury date, even if the injury was discovered one day before the four-year period expires.
Medical malpractice information
There are also specific instances where the Statute of Limitations may be shortened. Some examples of this are when your potential defendant is a state of the government entity, and the Governmental Immunity Statute applies or is discovered in cases of a foreign object. In these instances, your Statute of Limitations is limited to one year. Utah Code that applies to these exceptions reads as follows:
78B-3-404 Statute of limitations — Exceptions — Application.
(1) A malpractice action against a health care provider shall be commenced within two years
after the plaintiff or patient discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have
discovered the injury, whichever first occurs, but not to exceed four years after the date of the
alleged act, omission, neglect, or occurrence.
(2) Notwithstanding Subsection (1):
(a) in an action where the allegation against the health care provider is that a foreign object has been wrongfully left within a patient’s body, the claim shall be barred unless commenced
within one year after the plaintiff or patient discovers, or through the use of reasonable
diligence should have discovered, the existence of the foreign object wrongfully left in the
patient’s body, whichever first occurs; or
(b) in an action where it is alleged that a patient has been prevented from discovering misconduct
on the part of a health care provider because that health care provider has affirmatively acted
to fraudulently conceal the alleged misconduct, the claim shall be barred unless commenced
within one year after the plaintiff or patient discovers, or through the use of reasonable
diligence should have discovered the fraudulent concealment, whichever first occurs.
Amended by Chapter 384, 2012 General Session
What can you do about negligence?
In cases of medical malpractice resulting in wrongful death, the regular medical malpractice statute of limitations applies. This is important because Utah has a separate wrongful death statute of limitations for all other tort matters. The general wrongful death statute does not supersede the medical malpractice statute of limitations.
