Lavern’s Law Will Start Saving Victims Of New York Medical Malpractice Right Now

Lavern’s Law was passed in the New York Legislature, both the House and the Assembly, but not yet delivered to the Governor for signature.  Governor Cuomo will then have a certain amount of time to sign the bill into law.

Lavern’s Law is very important because it extends or start a new statute of limitations period for medical malpractice victims who were harmed by negligence cancer misdiagnoses.  The law provides a “discovery period” to start the statute of limitations.  This is important because, by the time most victims realize there was a mistake, the medical malpractice statute of limitations has already expired.

For instance, the current statute of limitations period is two and a half years for the act or omission constituting medical malpractice.  By the time most victims of a cancer misdiagnosis realize there was a mistake, it is usually beyond two and a half years and therefore a victim cannot commence a lawsuit.  That is because a cancer misdiagnosis doesn’t not become apparent right away, and it can take years before he misdiagnosis is discovered and the victim is found to be injured.

So what happens as the Legislature waits to deliver the bill to Governor Cuomo to sign into law?  More people are having their cases expire!

For instance, all cases two years and six months and ONE day from today are expired now.  Tomorrow that will push it one more day forward.