Under MICRA, a plaintiff in a malpractice case only has one year from the date they discover their injury was caused by negligence to sue a medical provider. The plaintiff also typically has three years from the date of the injury to bring their suit, whether they recognize the injury is from malpractice or not.
There are few exceptions that affect the statute of limitations. For instance, with misread mammograms, the patient is often considered “injured” when she is actually diagnosed with breast cancer – even though the mistake was made years prior. With details like these, it’s important for an attorney to accurately determine how long you have to pursue a claim. Moreover, anyone who seriously suspects they were a victim of malpractice should seek out an attorney as early as possible.
MICRA also requires that the defendant medical provider be given a 90 day notice of an impending lawsuit before the case is filed, as codified in Code of Civil Procedure section 364. Failure to do so will not stop the case from moving forward, but is something that attorneys are supposed to do. If the statute of limitations would run within that 90 day notice period, sending the notice will extend the medical malpractice statute by 90 days.