Personal injury lawyer help in Franklin County, Maine

Franklin County, Maine includes 20 named communities, the largest being Jay, Farmington, Wilton. Whether an accident happened on a county road, in a small town or in one of the larger communities, the same Maine rules apply: a 6-year filing deadline for most injury claims, modified comparative negligence (50% bar), and lawsuits filed in the Franklin County Superior Court. This page is the county-wide guide, with links to a page for each community.

You describe what happened anywhere in Franklin County using the free claim review form, and your request may be shared with participating attorneys or legal services partners who handle that type of matter in Maine. Submitting a request does not hire an attorney, and everything below is general legal information, not legal advice about your specific situation.

Federal crash records list 17 fatal crashes in Franklin County from 2019 through 2023, in which 19 people died. The yearly count was 1 in 2019, 2 in 2020, 6 in 2021, 3 in 2022 and 5 in 2023; 35% of them happened after dark.

Of the 5 fatal crashes in Franklin County in 2023, 1 involved a pedestrian and none happened at an intersection. Roads with more than one fatal crash in Franklin County in 2023: Farmington Falls Rd (US-2) had 2.

Fatal crashes are the most serious outcome on these roads; many more crashes cause injuries without a death. Whatever the severity, the police crash report, photos of the scene and prompt medical records are the starting evidence for a claim. In Maine, 5% of fatal crash reports from these years did not record a city at all, so local counts here are likely too low.

Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), final data for 2019 to 2023. FARS counts every crash on a public road in which someone died within 30 days; a crash counts for Franklin County when the reporting agency coded it there. Counts for one place are small and swing from year to year, so read them as a picture of local risk, not a forecast.

Communities in the county with the most fatal crashes coded to them:

• Jay, ME4 fatal crashes · 5 deaths, 2019-2023
• Farmington, ME2 fatal crashes · 2 deaths, 2019-2023
• Wilton, ME2 fatal crashes · 2 deaths, 2019-2023
• New Sharon, ME1 fatal crashes · 1 deaths, 2019-2023
• Phillips, ME1 fatal crashes · 1 deaths, 2019-2023

Each community below has its own guide with the local court, insurance rules and every type of injury claim.

• Jay, MEpop. 4,988
• Farmington, MEpop. 4,288
• Wilton, MEpop. 2,198
• New Sharon, MEpop. 1,348
• Strong, MEpop. 1,309
• Kingfield, MEpop. 1,147
• Phillips, MEpop. 1,029

Smaller communities in Franklin County include Dryden, East Dixfield, East Wilton, Eustis, Farmington Falls, New Vineyard, North Jay, Oquossoc, Rangeley, Stratton, Temple, Weld, West Farmington. Residents of these areas follow the same Maine rules, use the same Franklin County Superior Court, and can request a free claim review from anywhere in the county.

Maine generally gives an injured person six years from the date of injury to file a personal injury lawsuit (14 M.R.S. § 752); medical malpractice is different (three years). Wrongful death claims follow their own deadline, which can differ from the one above. Claims against a city, county, school district or state agency follow separate and often much shorter deadlines. Once the deadline passes, the Franklin County Superior Court will dismiss the case regardless of how clear the fault was, so the practical rule in Franklin County is to get legal advice early.

Maine follows modified comparative negligence (50% bar). In plain terms, you can recover only if you were less than 50% at fault, and your award is reduced by your share of fault. Insurance adjusters apply this rule from the first phone call, which is why the way an accident is described and documented in the days after it happens in Franklin County has a direct effect on what a claim is worth.

After a crash in Franklin County, the at-fault driver's liability insurance is the primary source of compensation. Maine requires drivers to carry only 50/100/25 in coverage (thousands of dollars for bodily injury per person, per accident, and property damage), which serious injuries quickly exhaust. Underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy and claims against additional responsible parties often make the difference in Franklin County cases.

Lawsuits arising from accidents in Franklin County are typically filed in the Franklin County Superior Court, the trial court of general jurisdiction for Franklin County, although cases can sometimes be filed where the defendant resides or does business, and claims against out-of-state trucking companies or manufacturers may end up in federal court. Most claims settle before trial, but the credible ability to try a case in Franklin County is what moves insurers to pay fair value.

Employees injured on the job in Franklin County are generally covered by Maine workers' compensation, administered through the Maine Workers' Compensation Board. Report the injury to your employer within 60 days for injuries since January 1, 2020 (39-A M.R.S. § 301) — that notice deadline is short and missing it can end the claim before it starts — then file the formal claim within two years. Workers' compensation does not pay for pain and suffering, so when a third party such as a subcontractor, driver or equipment manufacturer caused the injury, a separate personal injury claim is often worth pursuing alongside it.

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See the Maine personal injury guide for every county in the state.