It being a new year, I thought I would tell you a few things about statutes of limitation. These are legal rules establishing deadlines for bringing claims. As lawyers occasionally learn the hard way, if a statute of limitation expires before a claim has been formally asserted, the claim is lost.
There are many policy reasons for statutes of limitation. With the passage of time, evidence fades, witnesses die, legal rules change. Plus, people and businesses need to move on without a possible unresolved claim lurking about in the shadows. And the judicial system keeps busy enough with new claims. It would be overwhelmed if there weren’t deadlines for commencing legal actions.
Although the concept of statutes of limitation is straightforward, the details of these rules can produce complexity in multiple ways. To begin, there are hundreds of statutes of limitation, found in state and federal law. Some cover a wide category of claims like, say, claims for breach of contract. Others, however, deal with a narrow slice of the legal landscape, like claims brought under federal securities laws. Deciding which rule applies to any particular claim is not always easy, and there may be conflicting rules.
Another major area of complexity — and confusion —has to do with when the clock begins to tick or, as lawyers say, a statute of limitation begins to…
