Lessons · Law foundations · a limitation period
A limitation period, and the day it runs out
A limitation period is a length of time, running from an event the rule names, after which a claim can no longer be started.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
This is the one date in a personal injury or contract file that cannot be fixed afterwards by working harder. It is written on the front of the file on the day the file is opened, in ink, and it is checked by somebody else before the file is closed for the night.
How to think about it
Find the event the rule runs from, read the length of the period, and write the end date as a date. Then say out loud which event it ran from, because that is the part people get wrong.
Worked example
Rule the file gives: 4 years, running from the date of the breach.The period and the trigger, taken from the rule in front of you rather than from memory.
Breach: 12 March 2021.Fixed by a document in the file, with the document named beside it.
Four years on: 12 March 2025. Write it on the front of the file.Same day, same month, the year moved on by the length of the period.
Then work backwards: the date the file has to be ready by, well before it.The limitation date is the cliff. The working deadline sits months in front of it.
Your turn
The event is 2 June 2022 and the rule given is a period of 6 years from that event. Write the year the period ends.
Event 2 June 2022, period 6 years: the period ends in
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Running the period from the date the client walked in. The period runs from the event the rule names, which is often years before the office ever heard about it.