In a personal injury case, it is important to file your lawsuit or petition within two years of the accident or negligent act that gave rise the claim. Some injury cases do have longer statutes of limitations, but it’s important to contact a lawyer to determine the particular statute for your case.
Plaintiff attorney’s use to be able to state in their petition that the amount of “damages sought are within in the jurisdictional limits of the court.” This has changed and is no longer acceptable, most defense attorney’s will file a motion for special exception seeking a hearing to amend the pleadings. Plaintiff attorney’s should state the range of damages sought in their Original Petition. These ranges can be found at the bottom of the Civil Case Information Sheet. For instance, a range that is found on the CCIS is $200,000.00 but not more the $1,000,000.00.
Stating the specific amount is acceptable as well, however, this may limit they amount your client can seek in court if further damages are discovered through discovery. Then the petition would have to be constantly amended. The petition can be amended many times in some cases. So stating a range is acceptable by the court and protects the plaintiff in the event that the jury feels the plaintiff is entitled to even greater damages than expected.
Court’s like to have a range stated for docket purposes as well. This way the court can better determine how to manage and distribute cases among the courts in that particular county.