How long a claimant has to bring a claim, when time starts running, and what happens once it expires — rules capable of defeating an otherwise sound case.
A claim with merit can still fail outright if it is issued a day too late, which makes the limitation rules a threshold every claim must clear. This chapter starts with the function of limitation and the Limitation Act framework, what it means for a cause of action to accrue, how the defendant raises limitation and how issuing a claim form stops the clock, and why time runs objectively even before the claimant knows they have a claim. It then sets out the periods for simple contracts, deeds, torts, personal injury and defamation, how continuing torts and concurrent liability affect the analysis, and the routes that soften the rules — the personal injury knowledge and discretion regime, disability, postponement for fraud, concealment or mistake, acknowledgments and part-payments, and the latent damage provisions with their fifteen-year longstop. It closes with the special position of conversion and theft, and the burden of proof and key distinctions that pull the whole scheme together.
