You’re stopped at a red light on Central Avenue near San Mateo, your 10-year-old in the back seat, when a city bus pulling away from the curb slams into your rear bumper.
At urgent care, they wrap your wrist and tell you to take it easy on your neck. Your daughter keeps saying she’s fine, but she’s been rubbing her shoulder since you got home. A few days later, the city’s insurance adjuster calls, and the adjuster is friendly, asking how everyone is feeling.
If you’re like most people, you’re probably thinking you have three years, because that’s what the New Mexico statute of limitations allows for most injury claims.
The thing is, when a city bus hits you, a much shorter deadline applies first, and it’s only 90 days. That’s why it’s worth talking with an Albuquerque personal injury attorney in the first few weeks, while there’s still time to give the city notice.
Here’s how long you have to file in New Mexico, which deadlines run shorter, and what can delay the clock.
Three Years Covers Most Injury Claims in New Mexico
A statute of limitations is the legal deadline for filing a lawsuit. In New Mexico, it’s three years from the date of the injury for most personal injury claims, including car crashes.
Let’s say a private driver’s pickup hit you on Central instead of a city bus. In that case, you would have until the same date three years later to file your lawsuit.
Nothing you do with the insurance company along the way will extend that deadline.
Opening a claim, trading emails with the adjuster, and even going back and forth over a settlement offer won’t pause the deadline, which means the legal time limits for car accidents can run out on people who are still waiting on the insurer.
New Mexico’s wrongful death statute of limitations also allows three years, but it runs from the date of death. For a doctor or hospital that has qualified under the state’s Medical Malpractice Act, the medical malpractice deadline in New Mexico is three years from the date of the malpractice itself.
In most cases, that deadline applies whether or not you knew anything went wrong.
When the Other Driver Works for the City
A claim against a city, county, school district, or state agency falls under the New Mexico Tort Claims Act, and the bus puts you in it. You have 90 days from the crash to deliver a written notice describing the time, place, and circumstances of your injury.
For a city, the notice goes to the mayor’s office.
Albuquerque’s own claims page says it has to arrive within 90 days, and nobody at City Hall circles the date for you. If you miss the 90-day notice period under the New Mexico Tort Claims Act, no court can hear the case unless the city already had actual notice that a claim was likely.
An ordinary police report usually doesn’t meet that test, so send the written notice anyway.
Against the city, the lawsuit deadline is two years from the crash instead of three. A family bringing a wrongful death claim against a government agency gets six months to give notice.
Let’s say the crash happened on a state highway because of a pothole nobody patched. In that case, the notice goes to the state’s Risk Management Division instead of the mayor.
What Can Delay the Clock?
Tolling the statute of limitations means pausing it or starting it later, and New Mexico does allow it in a few situations.
Let’s say your lower back started aching a few weeks after the crash, and your doctor blamed arthritis. Two years later, an MRI shows a herniated disc. In that case, a court applying what’s called the discovery rule may treat your claim as starting when you knew, or reasonably should have known, about the injury and its cause.
That rule won’t help against a doctor or hospital that has qualified under the Medical Malpractice Act. The Tort Claims Act’s deadlines also run from the date of the crash itself.
Your daughter has her own claim. Against a private driver, a 10-year-old would have until a year after her 18th birthday to file. The Tort Claims Act applies the same two years regardless of age, except that a child under 7 gets until her ninth birthday.
So against the city, your daughter has the same two years you do, and the safest move is to include her in your 90-day notice.
What Waiting Costs You
If you miss the deadline, the court will almost always dismiss the case, no matter how badly you were hurt.
Once that date passes, the insurer has no reason to pay.
Nothing requires the adjuster who called about your neck to mention the deadline, either, since tracking it isn’t part of their job. Meanwhile, the woman at the bus stop who saw the whole thing could move away, or she won’t remember much of it a year from now.
Most security systems along Central record over old video after a while, so someone will need to ask for it in writing. Your lawyer will also need time to look into the crash before filing anything. For example, the notice to the city has to describe the time, place, and circumstances of the crash, and those facts are easiest to gather in the first few weeks.
This is why waiting even a month or two shortens the timeline for your personal injury lawsuit.
Talk to Our Firm Before the 90 Days Run Out
A crash with a city bus starts a 90-day clock most people aren’t aware of well ahead of the three years they expect. At Barrera Law Group LLC, our trial lawyers have spent nearly two decades handling injury cases in New Mexico’s courts. We start every case by figuring out which deadlines apply, and consultations are free, with no obligation.
If you were hurt, reach out to our firm and bring the crash report, the date of the accident, and any letters from the city or its insurer, so we can get the notice moving before the 90 days run out.