The Ultimate Limitation Period: Updating the Limitation Act
Canadian Business Law Journal, Vol. 39, No. 149, 2003
14 Pages Posted: 23 Jul 2008
Date Written: July 20, 2003
Abstract
Limitation periods are, by nature, defense-sensitive. They are designed to bring closure, predictability and insurability to defendants while at the same time prompting plaintiffs not to sleep on their rights. Current trends in evolving legal doctrine continue to modify the effect of limitation periods in favor of a plaintiff in special circumstances. The concepts of discoverability and incapacity have become judicially imposed options for avoiding the harsh results of a limitation period if a plaintiff is unable to bring an action before the period expires. Working in the background of this jurisprudential outgrowth are the real or imagined pressures placed by an insurance industry seeking underwriting certainty. The effect is perhaps a perception that limitation periods are becoming softened and plaintiffs are wriggling free of the supposed closure, predictability and insurability that a strict limitation period is supposed to provide to defendants. This perception is one that may be behind the British Columbia Law Institute's latest report, The Ultimate Limitation Period: Updating the Limitation Act.
Keywords: limitation, limitation period, statute of limitations, civil litigation, ultimate limitation
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