But...It's an EMERGENCY!

I don’t know if you’re aware but it seems every time there’s an "emergency," people freak-out a bit more than usual.  Take for instance the winter storms that swept across the mid-west this last winter (and the one that hit the eastern seaboard this year). Stores were sold out of everything in minutes. Anything not nailed down was out the door. I’m sorry, but what in blazes are you going to do with a case of mothballs in a blizzard? Seems incredulous to be sure but when people are in a frenzy, they do crazy things.

While hind-sight is generally 20/20, the best course of action would be to be prepared before the emergency so you’re not running around all frantic at the last minute.  For instance, say while frantically looking for a case of mothballs at your local supermarket, you were walking down an aisle, slipped on a banana peel and fell breaking your coccyx. Ouch!  Consequently, you gingerly walk over to your local county law library and look at California Forms of Pleading and Practice (Matthew/Bender), volume 33, chapter 380 (Negligence).  You might also want to look at Causes of Action (West) and/or Personal Injury: Actions Defenses, Damages (Lexis). 
 

Of course, as is sometimes the case, you’ll wait until the day after the day you should have

filed your complaint to go to your local county law library.  In such a case, you’ll want to look at American Jurisprudence (West) and and look in the General Index under "Personal Injury" or "limitation of actions" and start looking for a shoulder on which to cry.

The moral to all this is that while you should be vigilant about matters concerning you and yours, if you should choose to squander your time searching for that elusive last case of mothballs and fail to file or do something critical, know that your local county law library will always be here to help you discover what you should have done after you should have done it.