EXPLAINER: Tipperary people! How long do you have to take legal action?
John Lynch writing in this week's Nationalist
What is the Statute of Limitations?
The law specifies the length of time a person has to take legal action following an event that gives rise to a claim. These time limits apply to all kinds of transactions or events.
Once the specified time has passed a case can no longer be brought.
After a certain length of time it is impossible to get accurate evidence – be it witnesses, people’s recollection etc. and the threat of legal action cannot hang over a person for an indefinite time. Therefore, the law stepped in with time limits, commonly set out in the Statute of Limitations.
How long does a person have to take action?
If a person is outside the limitation period, they cannot take an action. For example, in a personal injuries claim an injured party has, by and large, two years. Here are a few more examples of time limits :
*If going after an account – 6 years
*Unfair dismissal – 6 months
What happens if you don’t know?
A particular issue can arise in the case of latent defects. Although the Statute of Limitation for personal injury claims is two years, there is an important exception to cover cases involving latent defects. This comes into play where a person has no knowledge that an injury is connected with a wrong committed by someone else or is ignorant of the person to sue.
What does the “date of knowledge” mean?
The Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 introduced the “date of knowledge” for personal injury cases. The “date of knowledge” is applied when the date the wrong/injury takes place differs from the date the wrong/injury is discovered.
This means that in situations where the injury may not be obvious at first the time limit for actions does not begin until the injured party is aware of the injury.
How does the “date of knowledge” work in practice?
The “date of knowledge” has been widely applied in medical negligence cases. In these cases, a person who receives a negligent medical procedure may not have knowledge of the injury at first until the injuries cause problems or they become aware that such problems arose as a consequence of such procedures. There have been some notable examples over the last number years – such as the DePuy hip and cervical cancer cases.
Each case has to be carefully examined to see if there is compelling evidence of actual or deemed knowledge.
What about “date of knowledge” in other cases?
It would be hard to talk about time limits without talking about latent defects in areas other than personal injuries. The issue came up for detailed analysis in a recent Supreme Court case. The case involved a construction defect in a house that did not become known to the owner within the time period that would allow them to take a case against the builder.
The issue for the Court was when did the clock start – when the work was done or when the houseowner found out about the damage.
It went all the way to the Supreme Court because quite a few legal experts argued that the clock starts when the bad workmanship is done.
The court decided that the critical question is when was the damage done. On the facts of the case that damage did not occur until years after the works was completed and, therefore, the houseowner was in time to take a case. Again, as always, it is a matter of evidence in each case to prove when the damage is done.
I have no doubt that there will be many a case where both sides will give evidence of different dates.