Talk:Statute of limitations/Archive 1

Archive 1

Proper plural

I don't think it could matter less, . However the proper plural form is "Statutes of limitation" and not "statute of limitations". I know the latter is widely used, almost universally so, but it is incorrect. Each jurisdiction has several "statutes" which set the "limitation" for that particular area, not one "statute that sets all "limitations". It's plural form is in the same category as "Attorneys General," "Courts Marshall," and "Mothers-in-law". Statute is the noun, Limitation is the modifying adjective. You can't make an adjective plural just because it's after the noun. The only two proper pronunciations are the singular "statute of limitation" and plural "statutes of limitation" 24.111.8.108 (talk) 15:38, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

I agree here. The title and article should be changed to the proper English. 65.23.83.172 (talk) 19:54, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I disagree - Statute of Limitations is effectively the singular; one statute carrying many limitations. If you wanted to make a plural of it, it should be Statutes of Limitations, but I don't think there's any need here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Janemccallion (talk • contribs) 18:34, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Purpose?

I'm a little surprised that there's no clarification of the purpose of such a legal mechanism. Obviously in the case of misdemeanors or lesser crimes (like say public nudity), there's really no point in prosecution after 20 years. However, what I have difficulty understanding is how there can be statutes of limitations for things like armed robbery, and an explanation or clarification of the purpose behind a statute of limitations would probably shed insight. I can understand that a crime after a certain amount of time does not bear the same weight (especially in light of those that may have been affected), but should this then not be determined at the time of attempted prosecution? As a kind of agreement between the prosecution and defense, where both can agree that after 60 years, prosecuting an 80 year old bank robber wouldn't serve the public interest.

Could we possibly get some etymology/history of its inception along with possibly some calrification/explanation of its intended purpose? 66.175.212.30 (talk) 18:08, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

i'm no authority, but I was told that the idea is that someone has suffered enough by livving in terror of being caught for, say, 8 years. That that's punishment enough. It would be a miscarriage of justice to make someon live in fear of being caught for something they did thirty years ago -- in fact, this might be more punishment than if they had served six months thirty years ago! So, I was told: it's because dreading being caught is also a kind of punishment and the law considers it such. (However, it was a layperson who told me this.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.2 (talk) 00:08, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

also: I just checked by googlling "purpose of statute of limitations", whose second result (http://www.deadlyroads.com/statute-of-limitations.shtml) is a nice read. the google summary for the search result read "he primary purpose of a statute of limitations is to insure against the inevitable prejudice and injustice to a defendant that a delay in prosecution ..." but I'm readin gthe case I just linked for you now. It's interesting and informative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.2 (talk) 00:12, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Table of what statutes of limitations ARE

I saw a table once that listed how long the statute of limitations are in each jurisdiction, and I would love for something like that to be in Wikipedia. The limitation is at issue in a recent case in Chicago, USA. Downtown dan seattle 09:35, 29 July 2006

I don't think that would be realistic. Each jurisdiction can have different limits, those limits can change at the whim of each legislature, and some jurisdictions have limits specific to areas where others do not. You could say something along the lines of "generally the SOL for a breach of contract is 6 years and for a personal injury is 3 years, but this varies." If you were to do a table it should be in a separate page, more like the many lists you see. 24.111.8.108 (talk) 15:30, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Criminal template

Why is this criminal templated? Surely limitation periods apply to many kinds of proceeding? Francis Davey 17:23, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

They certainly do. And when they expire, they expire forever. There's no retroactive proceedings {the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases an anomaly, and even then there were certain time requirements for victim accusations and filings), not much to be done by law enforcement once the statute of limitations has been reached and passed in a criminal matter. If a person is still hounded about past allegations or suppositions, then civil redress is available to him or her. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.212.159.63 (talk) 13:12, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Canadian limit

The Canadian limit is 6 months for summary convictions, not 10 years. I changed that tad oversight.

Real estate claims and laches

For property ownership title defects, is there ever any equivalent to a statue of limitations type of abandonment of ownership beyone which claims against the title cannot be made?-anon. - Yes, it is called the "doctrine of laches," which mainly stands for the proposition that if you wait too long to assert title and your delay results in another being harmed by your claim to title, then you may not be allowed to make your claim.-anon.

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Prof. Schweizer of CSU Fresno has linked to this page from http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~haralds/LAWS.htm -- make sure it stays up to snuff!  :-) --LMS

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Is there a way to make this page less US-centric? Something like a statute of limitations exists in almost all legal systems. Also, one could talk about the history of the term (wasn't there once an English act called the Statute of Limitations, from which this term originates?) -- SJK

Yes, and in England and Wales we don't use the term "Statute of Limitations" because our limitation periods are contained in the Limitation Act 1980. I would prefer an article called "Limitation Periods" but that might be to POV for me. At the moment reading the article makes my skin creep, it is so POV. Francis Davey 21:09, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

I have seen judges use the phrase "statute of limitations" (e.g. in Haward v Fawcetts (a firm) [2006] UKHL 9) to refer to limation legislation in general, which you might want to do for considering the laws of various countries on the topic. People do sometimes use "statute of limitations" as if it is the name of a particular statute, but that's probably a misunderstanding or maybe an Americanism.--204.155.226.2 16:37, 11 July 2006 (UTC) Sophie

Additionally, I would like to see the Philosophies section expanded to be a little more comprehensive and include arguments both for and against them. I don't have the expertise to do this, but I think it would improve the page. Nisaba Gray 23:00, 14 February 2006 (UTC)Nisaba Gray

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Is there an information source from which one can research to discover what the "statute of limitation" or "limitation of action" is in a particular state for a given situation? JVP

Yes. In common law systems all such rules will be statutory since there is no common law notion of limitation (laches being equitable) -- leaving aside certain rules in claims of right and novel disseisin and so on. You therefore have to find the relevant rule. We could build a table up here. Francis Davey 21:09, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Can anyone volunteer a legal opinion on how a statute of limitations works in the case of government regulations. If an agency has a regulation in effect, and if the law creating the agency provides that each day of continuous violation of an agency regulation constitutes a separate offense, can a statute of limitation ever cut off the ability of an agency to enforce its regulation against a continuously existing violation?

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Is there any case law that substantiates the assertion that it is "unequitable to allow a defendant to use the defense of the running of the limitations period... where one is lead to believe that the other party has agreed to suspend the limitations period during a good faith settlement negotiation"? please email me at bobbywilson54@hotmail.com

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Just a minor comment. The opening line reads "A statute of limitations is a statute in a common law legal system setting forth the maximum period of time, after certain events, that legal proceedings based on those events may begin." But the opening line for Statute states "A statute is a formal, written law of a country or state, written and enacted by its legislative authority, perhaps to then be ratified by the highest executive in the government, and finally published." So on this topic page we use "statute" to mean "precedent" or "case law", and on the Statute page, it specifically entails a government's statutes as being "written... by its legislative authority". I found this misleading. Sure it's possible the word has multiple meanings, but wouldn't it be more appropriate and informative to not use the word statute which is already part of the topic, and instead use "precedent" or "case law"? --Michael McGranahan, 2005-03-31 09:42 PST.

I'm not sure what you're saying is misleading . . . A statute of limitations is statutory, as the first sentence says, meaning that it's enacted law issuing from a legislative body either with or in spite of an executive veto, yeah? Then the law is implemented and applied, and when somebody doesn't like it, they get a judge to construe the law and rule on its constitutionality or whatever. That ruling becomes part of the law unless the legislature responds by enacting an amendment. Maybe I'm just missing what you're getting at . . . --anon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.81.116.76 (talk) 18:29, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

As far as I can see the chronological table of statutes has no act with the title "statute of limitations", so this must have been a popular name not a short title or collective title. Whether it was used in the past in England I do not know, though I think it is likely, it is not a term that is used now and, as you say, it is sloppy unless a statute is really called "statute of limitations" using whatever system you use for entitling statutes in your jurisdiction.

The earliest example of such a statute I can find is 3 Edw. 1 c. 39 listed in the chronological tables as "Limitation of Prescription Act, 1275", vulgo "The Statute of Westminster the First". Francis Davey 21:09, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

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Accrual of cause of action

In English law the limitation period doesn't necessarily start when the cause of action accrues - e.g. for latent damage caused by a breach of contract, the cause of action accrues when the breach occurs but the limitation period does not start to run until the claimant knows about the damage. The fact that in those circumstances the limitation period starts later than normal does not change the date when the cause of action accrues. (see Limitation Act 1980 s14A). I don't know whether the terms are the same in US law but I suspect the writer has defined accrual of a cause of action in a slightly sloppy way. --204.155.226.2 16:30, 11 July 2006 (UTC)Sophie

Statute of Repose

This section was crap with no actual definition of a statute of repose. I added the definition from 54 C.J.S. Limitations of Actions § 4, at 20-21 (1987). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.166.2.100 (talk) 22:57, 1 February 2007 (UTC).

Canadian limitations

The Ontario Limitations Act 2002 establishes a limitations period for sexual assault, which to the best of my knowledge is an indictable offence (felony), so I took out the assertion about only summary offences having limitations. If I'm wrong, feel free to change it back. I'll be doing further research. John FitzGerald 23:48, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Okay, there's a summary version of sexual assault. i reverted until i can establish wha's limited and what's not. John FitzGerald

I was wrong, it appears. However, the limitations period appears to vary by offence by province. I'll make sure of the facts before changing the text this time, though. John FitzGerald fdsadfdsfdsf ÂÂ

statute of limitations

Are there any limitations on time in which a creditor can sue for an uncollected debt? ie, an account is 5 years old and the debt remains uncollected.

In the US, for example, the period of limitations is set by state statutes, debtor-creditor relations being a state law matter. One important exception is government-issued or -guaranteed student loans: the SoL has been abolished for those. Ellsworth 01:02, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Are there any limitations on time in regards to a signed contract that remains unpaid? Raceangel (talk) 22:59, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Clarity

In the section

An example of this would be that if a person is electrocuted by a wiring defect incorporated into a structure in, say, 1990 . . .

does this refer to a situation in which the person is electrocuted in 1990, or that the defect was incorporated into the structure in 1990? This should be clearer. -Branddobbe 02:26, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

probation

is there a statue of limitatations on violation of probation? that occured in 1980, by leaving the state where probation was given? state california,offence felenoy reckless driving reduced to reckless driving in 1979.

"False Memory" Syndrome...

or in the case of controversial false memory syndrome cases where someone discovers memories of childhood sexual abuse during therapy long afterwards.

I don't see how the truth or falsehood of the "memory" in question is relevant to the time limit on bringing action. This looks to me like an editorial comment on the validity of repressed/recovered memory. It doesn't matter if the memory is valid, or a false/distorted memory resulting from poor psychological treatment -- that issue is decided during the legal proceedings; the statue of limitations is used to determine if proceedings can even begin. Kutulu 22:16, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I believe the idea is that the statute of limitations is to prevent starting cases and wasting peoples' time and the state's money in situations where the evidence is very dubious. Even though once a case is started, they decide the validity of the evidence, one of the purposes of the statute of limitations is to prevent cases which might involve false memory from even starting, and therefore the comment is relevant (although it might require a citation). Pulsemeat 01:47, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

The unreliability of witness's and victim's accounts after long periods is probably one of the reasons why there is a statute of limitations. However, after this edit the article says that, if legal proceedings in a sexual abuse case must start before X years have passed since the sexual abuse was discovered. And the time of discovery can be the moment the victim remembers the abuse. I find that hard to believe. Johan Lont 07:46, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

It's also a self-contradictory sentence - if the memories are false they can't be discovered and also aren't memories.

I've replaced the false memory wording with the term "repressed memory" which is more neutral. The repressed memory article can do the job of presenting arguments for and against the legitimacy of such memories. DopefishJustin 19:58, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Primary Inventor needs answers & some serious legal help. (I'll share the movie rights, too!)

I'm an American (primary) inventor, who has been failed by our system. I'm told by some, that there may be a statute of limitations barring me from taking ultimate actions against a few infringers who have blantantly infringed, (and a lot worse). [SEE: www.perfectagrip.com (Infringers beware)]

My legal dilemma (with no cure) is killing me.

Despite the fact I have both, a fantastic product line & an unmatched vision... It is impossible to find any honest representation, who will not be bought off by those who have made considerable revenue selling my idea (without a patent) at my expense, and as a result [they] have the required "deep pockets" critical to attracting any attorney. I have an extremely strong case against several. I have been told many different conflicting opinions.

Can I eventually prevail, should I happen to find this mythical honest attorney? Is there any limitation period if we can prove gross legal malpractice, and/or fraud were to blame? ((When will the rights of inventors EVER be protected??))

Please, feel free to respond to me via email at: agpgi@yahoo.com

Thank you, - A.G. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 198.111.161.50 (talk) 23:08, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

If it is truly killing you, there shall be no statutes of limitations in the USA. If you are dead and can't read this, you could be getting another chance. Gnostics (talk) 03:28, 20 June 2015 (UTC)

Britain?

Does the concept of a statute of limitations exist in Britain (specifically, England) as far as criminal law is concerned? Growing up in England, I always thought it an American concept when I read about it in books. 86.132.137.80 01:42, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, The UK has the Limitation Act (1980), with a bunch of later amendments: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58 There's already a page on it at Limitation Act 1980. Actually, I'm not sure if it covers the whole UK, but definitely England and Wales. Shobble (talk) 04:41, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Does not cover Scotland. In Scotland the legal terminology for this is "prescription". Common law crimes (i.e. crimes not defined in statute, of which there are many) cannot prescribe as Scotland does not have a statute of limitations. Some statutory crimes have built-in prescription periods, though common law equivalents can often be used by prosecutors (obtaining money by false pretense being a statutory crime, fraud being common law for example). In practice, however, the quality of evidence against a person fades the more time passes and this will affect the decision whether to prosecute or not. Note that there are strict prescription periods that exist for any crime once charges are brought against the accused. (Connolly15 (talk) 16:17, 6 December 2011 (UTC))

See Limitation Periods in the UK. Biscuittin (talk) 19:32, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

New York

The part saying that the New York SOL is three years is flat-out wrong. First of all, there are many different time limitations applicable to various causes of action. If the "default rule" is what this reference was getting at, a six-year limitations period applies "where not otherwise provided for." CPLR 213.

Clarification

It discusses the ability of statues of limitations on civil lawsuits. What happens to any property that the person may have stolen or acquired illegally. Scenario

Person A 13 years ago stole a painting from Museum X. The statue of limitations is 8 years on larceny. It is found out that person A still has the painting in his posession. Can Museum X still get their painting back from person A. This would be something similar to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum stolen Remprant' case. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.91.129.150 (talk) 00:01, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Does every law have a statute of limitation.

Does every law written have a statute of limitation imposed with it, or only those that do have a statute of limitations written with it carry one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.91.129.150 (talk) 00:05, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

That question can't be answered without a specific jurisdiction being mentioned. As explained in the article, in Canada serious offences have no statute of limitations. Similarly, in the English system these priests would not be exempt from prosecution even for any thefts that occurred 20 years ago. As another commenter above says, the whole concept of a SOI, at least for serious crimes, seems very American to us in the UK. 86.132.138.159 (talk) 16:43, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Sources?

This article doesn't even bother to cite any sources or provide any external links to useful information on the subject. As far as i can tell, everything in this article is just hearsay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.104.125.246 (talk) 17:01, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Links to Different Countries' Statutes?

Perhaps this article could be improved by adding external links (or possibly linking articles explicitly created for) giving examples of different statutes in different legal systems, such as for different states, countries, and whatnot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.15.127.234 (talk) 19:18, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Trend to eliminate or extend statute of limitations for child sexual abuse (CSA)

Would like to see references concerning this and pros/cons. Arguments in favor of SOLs should be about improving the chance for justice and improving the reliability of convictions and acquittals. Now, many countries in recent years have eliminated SOLs or extended SOLs or prescriptive periods for CSA. Some references and discussion of this could be interesting, particularly since CSA often depends heavily on the accuser's memory and is one of the few crimes in many jurisdictions for which a conviction can be secured based merely on an accusation alone. This combined with large dollar civil suit settlements puts CSA in a high risk category for false accusations. Corroborative evidence is often totally lacking and details sketchy at best. This suggests that, if anything, CSA should have well-defined and reasonable SOLs in the interests of justice and to help ensure an improved basis for reliable convictions. Just my opinion but allegations suddenly surfacing concerning events that supposedly happened 40 or even 50 years ago should never go to court for anything except murder or torture. But this happens all the time now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.68.37.190 (talk) 16:26, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

No limitations for murder ?

As a rule, murder (especially capital murder or first degree murder) has no statute of limitations.
Really ? I thought there was a limitation of 20 years or something like that.
So, if someone is found dead, and the police conclude to a suicide and 60 years later someone says "no, it wasn't a suicide, I killed him". Can he be prosecuted ?

Murder in France

This article about an unsolved murder in France in 1990 is interesting. The father of the victim is quoted as saying: "In France it's the situation that within 10 years after a case is formally closed it can be opened if new evidence comes to light. If 10 years has lapsed from the date of formal closure of the case, nobody can be charged." Does this really mean that once the case has been closed for ten years someone could come forward and publicly announce his guilt, and there wouldn't be anything anyone could do? If this is the case, how do scholars of the French legal system regard it as being justified? Have there been cases of people confessing to serious crimes like murder in France after the chance to prosecute them has been missed? Are there any other jurisdictions with similar rules where this has happened? I can't imagine that there wouldn't be a few, if this is really the case. Beorhtwulf (talk) 22:46, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

This is off topic. A statue of limitations involves common law legal systems (France is not a common law system) and establishes a maximum time based on the time after an event that the case is based on (the event here is the murder, the limit is based on a separate event). Interesting or not it has no place here. Your unsourced speculation about confessing more than 10 years after the closing of a case has no place on any talk page. - SummerPhD (talk) 00:48, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

If you look at the article you'll see that it very clearly covers both common law and civil law systems (while having more information about the former, given the demographics of the English Wikipedia's editor base), since it mentions both terms in the introduction, has a section entitled "Prescription", and because period of prescription redirects here. I am making an enquiry on the talk page as an interested reader to see if there is anyone watching this page, or anyone who will come across it in future, who can incorporate well-sourced information into the article about periods of prescription in France, as I am interested to learn more about them and I think other readers will be too. I really think this is quite reasonable and not at all an abuse of the talk page. If you do think it's an abuse, I think to ensure consistency you would have to remove a lot of other enquiries on this talk page and others, starting with the section above this one entitled "No limitations for murder ?" Beorhtwulf (talk) 01:01, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Your speculation about how something obliquely similar to a statute of limitations might apply in a hypothetical situation and how scholars might justify what you interpret to be unimaginable would require several very unlikely events to coalesce in a single situation to improve this article. More likely, you are posing a question about the situation. This is not discussion related to improving the article. - SummerPhD (talk) 01:34, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Section for country-specific outlines & links?

Each individual country is going to vary in exactly how (and perhaps if) they have a statute of limitations or equivalent. At the very least we've got references for the US and UK. I'm still pretty new, so I'm not sure what the standard format for that would look like. Any ideas? Shobble (talk) 04:44, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Reasons for statutes of limitation

I had always believed that one reason for having a statute of limitation would have been to stop the former practice of bounty hunters finding some old guy who had been wanted "dead or alive" some 20 or 30 years before, shooting him dead, and turning in his body for the reward. Admittedly, I have no reference or documentation to support this. Dick Kimball (talk) 19:46, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

The peculiar (unique?) case of Italy

In Italy, differently from any other country i know of, time limit applies not on trial start but on trial end. I re-added the following:

Italian case is quite peculiar in this regard since lawsuits and trials must be ended, rather than started, within such a time limit. This makes effectively possible to avoid a guilty sentence by delaying the trial enough for the time limit to expire.

Which had been deleted from the "Prescription" paragraph. Please argue if you think that's not appropriate - instead of simply deleting it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.147.16.11 (talk) 20:40, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

Country-specific information

I see that this article contains some information specific to the U.S. nd to Australia, but that information doesn't look well arranged withing the article. I suggest moving country-specific information to country-specific subsections in a Specific countries section. Aside from improving the article's organization, this would simplify the process of adding information specific to countries not currently mentioned in the article (e.g., see articles 90-93 here for the Philippines. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 02:24, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

I will try to tidy this up. Biscuittin (talk) 19:42, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Done. Biscuittin (talk) 19:59, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Last Paragraph

Any objections to removing the last paragraph or at least fixing it so it does not read like the writers personal opionion versus fact?Lgkkitkat (talk) 07:11, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

In Civil Law Jurisdictions

Civil law jurisdictions use the term "prescription" where common law jurisdictions would use "statute of limitations". Also, in most civil law countries, there exist clearcut rules on how long before legal action could be commenced, independent of an individual court's assessment on the specific case. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fralucapacioli (talk • contribs) 14:02, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

SOL in the State of California

I would like to know if anyone has reliable information on SOL in California for the following two offences:

• Accessory-after-the-fact in a case of murder

• Perjury in a criminal or civil trial

I am asking this question because I was surprised today when watching an American crime documentary on TV that a police informant in a murder case could not be prosecuted as an accessory-after-the-fact because of the statute of limitations. I didn't think that SOL would apply in a case of murder, but apparently it does, at least in some legislatures. That made me wonder about the crime of perjury, where an offender could be of help to the police as a witness by being willing to tell the truth if they themselves could no longer be prosecuted for their former perjury because of the statute of limitations.

If you can answer my query would you please quote an official source that I can consult? In spite of trying, I haven't been able to locate any so far.

O Murr (talk) 19:41, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

Statue of limitation in UK

The section is way to short and should contain a 4 line summary of what is contained in the wiki page 'Limitation periods in the UK'. The only citation used is to a controversial source in which victims of sexual assault are criticised. This section needs a more substantiative source such as a House of Commons briefing or a section from a law book. Currently finding such a source but they are hard to find. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chappy P (talk • contribs) 22:20, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

Australian Law

The current information on Australian SoL is a reference to the law in the state of Victoria, not nationally. As there is no federal law, each state has their own legislation and thus should be reflected in this article. If there are no objections I will update this progressively edit this after I've looked over each state's law/case history. Topher anton (talk) 04:27, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Not sure whether Topher anton ever came back to this, but I agree with the sentiments expressed above. I have made changes to reflect the absence of federal law.

I recommend that the entry for Australia continue to be improved in the following respects:

• add information for other states and territories;
• provide further information (important examples, perhaps) for criminal cases;
• for Victoria, expand/generalise to not only focus on child abuse and similar matters.

A helpful start seems to be [1].

—DIV (137.111.13.4 (talk) 06:09, 11 March 2021 (UTC))