Washington Personal Injury Law & Settlements – Lawsuit Information Center Blog

Miller & Zois is a national personal injury law firm. Although we are based in Maryland, our firm routinely handles severe personal injury cases nationwide, including Washington state. Our firm has helped injury victims in Washington get compensation in various types of cases across the state, including medical malpractice, birth injuries, major auto accidents, and everything else.
$60,000 Verdict (King County 2023): A Waste Management garbage truck struck the plaintiff from the side after the defendant driver failed to yield at a stop sign. The plaintiff alleged that she suffered a fractured ring finger, fractured clavicle, and continuing shoulder pain with limited range of motion. The jury awarded $60k.
$128,238 Verdict (King County 2023): A 44-year-old plaintiff claimed to suffer injuries to his knee, shoulder, cervical, thoracic and lumbar strains; anterior chest, shin, and bilateral flank contusions after being rear-ended by another driver. After settling with the at-fault driver the plaintiff sought further damages under her UIM coverage.
$3,600,000 Verdict (Snohomish County 2023): The plaintiff was a pedestrian crossing a street in Edmonds, Washington when struck by the defendant’s vehicle. The plaintiff claimed that she suffered injuries to the left leg and ankle resulting in left ankle joint instability with a rupture of the ligament at the left ankle requiring surgery. Neck and shoulder pain and headaches were also alleged. The award only included $65k in economic damages.
$25,550 Verdict (King County 2023): The plaintiff was stopped at a red light on Pacific Hwy South near Dash Point Road South in Federal Way, Washington, when the defendant rear-ended her. The plaintiff claimed hand, head, neck, mid and low-back injuries.
$319,509 Verdict (Snohomish County 2023): The decedent was standing behind a commercial waste truck when it ran him over and crushed him to death. His family brought a wrongful death lawsuit. The jury awarded $3 million but found that the decedent himself was 90% at fault for standing in a dangerous location behind the truck. Under Washington’s pure comparative fault rule, the plaintiff could still recover but damages were reduced to $319k.

The settlement value of personal injury cases in Washington is driven by several different factors, which often tend to be very case-specific. Listed below are some of the main driving forces behind the settlement valuation of Washington tort cases.
All states have laws called statutes of limitation that impose time limits or deadline for how long a victim can wait before bringing a civil lawsuit in personal injury and other types of cases. If the lawsuit is not filed before the applicable statute of limitations (SOL) deadline expires, the plaintiff is legally barred from suing.
Washington has a general 3-year statute of limitations that applies to all personal injury lawsuits. Rev. Wash. Code § 14.16.080. This law requires any personal injury or negligence lawsuit to be filed within 3-years of the date when the cause of action accrues. In most cases, the cause of action accrues and the 3 year SOL period begins to run on the date of the accident / injury. This is always true in auto accident cases. In more complex cases, such as medical malpractice, however, the date when the cause of action accrues is not so clear.
Like most states, Washington courts apply the so-called discovery rule for determining when a cause of action accrues for SOL purposes. Under this rule, the SOL clock begins running when the plaintiff discovers or should have reasonably discovered that they had an injury caused by negligence.
In cases where the plaintiff or injured party is deemed to be partly responsible for their own injuries, Washington courts follow the doctrine of pure comparative fault. Under the comparative fault rule, a plaintiff’s damages are reduced by their percentage share of fault. For example, if a plaintiff is found to be 20% at-fault and the defendant is 80% at-fault, the plaintiff’s damages would be reduced by 20%. So if the plaintiff was awarded $100,000, they would only get $80,000.
Washington is among those states that have enacted laws imposing strict liability on dog owners in the event that their dog bites or attacks and injures someone. Under Wash. Rev. Code § 16.08.040, a dog owner is automatically liable for injuries cause by the dog regardless of whether the dog had a known history of aggression.
Unlike many other states, Washington does not have laws imposing a maximum cap on the amount of damages that a plaintiff can be awarded in a personal injury case. Previous attempts by the state legislature to impose damage caps have been struck down by the courts as being in violation of the state constitution. This means that there is no limit to how much money a plaintiff in a personal injury case can get.
If you want to file a personal injury lawsuit against the state government in Washington, or a local government, special notice rules apply. Before filing suit, a notice of claim must be sent to the relevant government department or agency. This must be submitted within the 3-year statute of limitation period. Once the notice of claim is submitted, the plaintiff must wait 60 days before filing a lawsuit.
Below is a summary of the key laws and procedural rules in Washington that are specifically applicable to medical malpractice cases.
Medical malpractice cases in Washington are subject to a slightly different statute of limitations than other tort claims. Malpractice lawsuits in Washington must be filed within 3 years of the medical negligence that caused the injury; OR 1 year after the plaintiff discovered or should have discovered that medical negligence caused the injury.
Washington had a statute of repose that sets a maximum time cap on all medical malpractice cases that applies over and above the statute of limitations. The Washington statute of repose required all malpractice cases to be filed within 8 years of when the alleged medical negligence occurred. Wash. Rev. Code § 4.16.350
In December 2023, the Washington State Supreme Court reviewed this state’s eight-year statute of repose for medical malpractice lawsuits in Washington.  The court found that the statute of repose violates the privileges and immunities clause because it does not apply equally to all citizens and lacks a reasonable justification, considering its exceptions and tolling provisions.
Before filing a civil lawsuit for medical malpractice, Washington law requires all plaintiffs to go through a mandatory mediation process. The mediation must be completed before the malpractice lawsuit can be filed. However, the mediation is non-binding so the outcome or decision (if there is one) has no impact on either party. Wash. Rev. Code §§ 7.70.100
Washington law does not require plaintiffs to obtain a certificate or affidavit of merit from a medical expert before filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases will still need to present expert witness testimony to prove their case.
Under Washington law, a manufacturer or seller of a product can be held liable if that product is defective and that defect causes injuries or harm. Washington law acknowledges the 3 basic types of product defects as identified in the Restatement of Torts: manufacturing defect, design defect, and failure to warn.
There are a number of national mass torts or “class actions” that involve Washington plaintiffs, including claims our law firm is handling across the country:
Our firm handles serious injury and wrongful death lawsuits in Washington, working with trusted colleagues in Washington who also have a history of maximizing how much personal injury claims are worth. Our law firm compensates your lawyers out of our attorneys’ fees. So you pay absolutely no additional contingency fees, and you have two law firms instead of one. Also important: you only pay nothing unless you get settlement compensation or a jury payout.
If you were hurt and believe you have a potential claim and you want justice, click here for a free no-obligation consultation or call us today at 800-553-8082.
 

Personal injury lawyers handling serious personal injury truck and auto accident, medical malpractice and products liability cases throughout the United States.
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