A limitation period does not begin when somebody is harmed; it begins when the law says the claim accrued, and those two dates are frequently years apart. Discovery rules, continuing conduct, minority and incapacity, and contractual shortening all move the date, while a statute of repose ignores all of them and cuts the claim off regardless. This subject covers where a limitation period starts, what moves it and what does not.
A discovery rule postpones the start of a limitation period until the claimant knew, or with reasonable diligence should have known, the facts that make up the claim. It is not a general fairness provision: it operates on the start date only, it uses a constructive knowledge standard, and once triggered the period runs normally.
Where conduct repeats or continues, systems answer the limitation question in three ways: a single period from the first act, a single period from the last, or a fresh period for each act. The characterization decides how much of a long-running claim survives, and it usually turns on whether each occurrence caused its own harm.
A statute of repose imposes an outer limit measured from the defendant's conduct rather than from accrual or discovery. It is unaffected by discovery rules, tolling, minority and incapacity, and in many systems it extinguishes the claim rather than barring a remedy. Where one applies, checking it should come before any other limitation analysis.
Parties can frequently agree a shorter limitation period than the statutory one, and commercial contracts do so routinely. Enforceability turns on whether the period is reasonable, whether the clause was properly incorporated, whether the claim type permits shortening, and whether any statute prohibits it for that subject matter.
Where a claim has connections to more than one jurisdiction, the forum applies its own choice of law rules to decide which limitation period governs. Traditionally limitation was procedural and the forum's own period applied; borrowing statutes and modern approaches frequently point to the place with the closer connection instead.
A jurisdictional time limit conditions the authority of the forum. It cannot be waived, extended, tolled or forfeited, a decision-maker must apply it whether or not anybody raises it, and lateness ends the matter outright. Distinguishing jurisdictional limits from ordinary claim-processing rules is difficult and consequential.
A limitation period runs from accrual: the moment every element of the claim exists and a proceeding could have been brought. For a breach that is the breach itself; for a claim requiring damage it is the first damage; for a debt payable on demand it may be the demand. Identifying which element arrived last is what fixes the date, and it is a legal conclusion rather than something anybody recorded at the time.
Where harm appears years after the conduct, the ordinary accrual rule would start the period before anybody could know. Discovery rules answer that, and statutes of repose answer the discovery rules by imposing an outer limit measured from the act. Which of the three governs is the first question, and the repose limit is the one most often overlooked.
A limitation period is commonly postponed or suspended while a claimant lacks the capacity to bring proceedings. Whether the suspension applies depends on the definition used, when the incapacity began relative to accrual, and whether appointing a representative restarts the clock. Fluctuating and late-onset incapacity produce the hardest questions.
Where a limitation period has expired since filing, an amendment may still be effective if it relates back to the original claim. Relation back generally requires the new matter to arise from the same conduct or occurrence already pleaded, and adding a new party requires further conditions about notice within the period and knowledge of a mistake about identity.
Most systems postpone a limitation period while a claimant is under age, so that the ordinary period runs from majority instead. The protection covers the child's own claim rather than derivative claims by parents, does not always survive a statute of repose, and can be displaced where somebody was appointed to act for the child.
A limitation period ordinarily bars the remedy rather than destroying the underlying right, and in most systems it operates as a defense that a party must plead. That has practical consequences: a late claim is not struck out automatically, the burden of raising it sits with the defendant, and the period can be waived by conduct or agreement.
