Statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. In most jurisdictions, such periods exist for both criminal law and civil law such as contract law and property law, though often under different names and with varying details.
When the time which is specified in a statute of limitations runs out, a claim may no longer be filed, or if filed, it may be subject to dismissal if the defense against that claim is raised that the claim is time-barred as having been filed after the statutory limitations period.
When a statute of limitations expires in a criminal case, the courts no longer have jurisdiction. In many jurisdictions with statutes of limitation there is no time limit for dealing with particularly serious crimes.
In civil law systems, such provisions are typically part of their civil and criminal codes. The cause of action dictates the statute of limitations, which can be reduced or extended in order to ensure a full and fair trial. The intention of these laws is to facilitate resolution within a "reasonable" period of time. What amount of time is considered "reasonable" varies from country to country. In some countries, as in the US, it may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and state to state. Internationally, the statute of limitations may vary from one civil or criminal action to another. Some countries do not have a statute of limitations.
Analysis of a statute of limitations also requires the examination of any associated statute of repose, tolling provisions, and exclusions.
Applications
legal systems can include a statute specifying the length of time within which a claimant or prosecutor must file a case. In some jurisdictions, a case cannot begin after the period specified, and courts have no jurisdiction over cases filed after the statute of limitations has expired. In some other jurisdictions, a claim can be filed which may prove to have been brought outside the limitations period, but the court will retain jurisdiction in order to determine that issue, and the onus is on the defendant to plead it as part of their defense, or else the claim will not be statute barred.Once they are filed, cases do not need to be resolved within the period specified in the statute of limitations.
Purpose
The purpose and effect of statutes of limitations are to protect defendants. There are three reasons for their enactment:- A plaintiff with a valid cause of action can pursue it with reasonable diligence.
- By the time a stale claim is litigated, a defendant might have lost evidence necessary to disprove the claim.
- Litigation of a long-dormant claim may result in more cruelty than justice.
The limitation period generally begins when the plaintiff's cause of action accrues, meaning the date upon which the plaintiff is first able to maintain the cause of action in court, or when the plaintiff first becomes aware of a previous injury.
Statute of repose
A statute of repose limits the time within which an action may be brought based upon when a particular event occurred, and does not permit extensions. A statute of limitations is similar to a statute of repose but may be extended for a variety of reasons.For example, most U.S. jurisdictions have passed statutes of repose for construction defects. If a person receives an electric shock due to a wiring defect that resulted from the builder's negligence during construction of a building, the builder is potentially liable for damages if the suit is brought within the time period defined by the statute, normally starting with the date that construction is substantially completed. After the statutory time period has passed, without regard to the nature or degree of the builder's negligence or misconduct, the statute of repose presents an absolute defense to the claim.
Statutes of repose are sometimes controversial; manufacturers contend that they are necessary to avoid unfair litigation and encourage consumers to maintain their property. Alternatively, consumer advocates argue that they reduce incentives to manufacture durable products and disproportionately affect the poor, because manufacturers will have less incentive to ensure low-cost or "bargain" products are manufactured to exacting safety standards.
Tolling and the discovery rule
Many jurisdictions toll or suspend the limitation period in exceptional circumstances such as if the aggrieved person was a minor, or has filed a bankruptcy proceeding. In those instances, the running of limitations is tolled or paused, until the condition ends. Equitable tolling may also be applied if an individual may intimidate a moving party into not reporting or has been promised a suspended period.The statute of limitations may begin when the harmful event, such as fraud or injury, occurs or it may begin when the harmful event is discovered. The U.S. Supreme Court has described the "standard rule" of when the time begins as "when the plaintiff has a complete and present cause of action." The rule has existed since the 1830s. A "discovery rule" applies in other cases, or a similar effect may be applied by tolling.
According to U.S. district judge Sean J. McLaughlin, the discovery rule does not apply to mass media such as newspapers and the Internet; the statute of limitations begins to run at the date of publication. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Gabelli v. SEC that the discovery rule does not apply to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's investment-advisor-fraud lawsuits since one of the purposes of the agency is to root out fraud.
In private civil matters, the limitation period may generally be shortened or lengthened by agreement of the parties. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, the parties to a contract for sale of goods may reduce the limitation period to one year but not extend it.
Limitation periods that are known as laches may apply in situations of equity; a judge will not issue an injunction if the requesting party waited too long to ask for it. Such periods are subject to broad judicial discretion.
For US military cases, the Uniform Code of Military Justice states that all charges except those facing court-martial on a capital charge have a five-year statute of limitations. If the charges are dropped in all UCMJ proceedings except those headed for general court-martial, they may be reinstated, once only, for six months.
Prescription
In civil law countries, almost all lawsuits must be brought within a legally-determined period at the end of which the right of action is extinguished. This is known as liberative or extinctive prescription. Under Italian and Romanian law, criminal trials must be ended within a time limit.In criminal cases, the public prosecutor must lay charges within a time limit which varies by jurisdiction and varies based on the nature of the charge, whose directives vary from country to country. Over the last decade of the 20th century, many United States jurisdictions significantly lengthened the statute of limitations for sex offenses, particularly against children, as a response to research and popular belief that a variety of causes can delay the recognition and reporting of crimes of this nature.
Common triggers for suspending the prescription include a defendant's fugitive status or the commission of a new crime. In some jurisdictions, a criminal may be convicted in absentia. Prescription should not be confused with the need to prosecute within "a reasonable delay" as obligated by the European Court of Human Rights.
Laws by region
International crimes
Under international law, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are usually not subject to the statute of limitations as codified in a number of multilateral treaties. States ratifying the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity agree to disallow limitations claims for these crimes. According to Article 29 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes "shall not be subject to any statute of limitations".Australia
In Australia, there are no statutes of limitation in criminal proceedings if the maximum penalty that can be imposed for an offence committed by an individual includes imprisonment for more than 6 months. For civil matters, the statutes of limitation are prescribed by each state or territory jurisdiction.Victoria
The Limitations Act 1958 allows 12 years for victims of child abuse to make a claim, with age 37 the latest at which a claim can be made. The police submitted evidence to a commission, the Victorian Inquiry into Church and Institutional Child Abuse indicating that it takes an average of 24 years for a victim of child sexual abuse to go to the police. According to Attorney General Robert Clark, the government will remove statutes of limitations on criminal child abuse; victims of violent crime should be given additional time, as adults, to deal with the legal system. Offenders of minors and the disabled have used the statute of limitations to avoid detection and prosecution, moving from state to state and country to country; an example which was presented to the Victorian Inquiry was the Christian Brothers.An argument for abolishing statutes of limitations for civil claims by minors and people under guardianship is ensuring that abuse of vulnerable people would be acknowledged by lawyers, police, organizations and governments, with enforceable penalties for organisations which have turned a blind eye in the past. Support groups such as SNAP Australia, Care Leavers Australia Network and Broken Rites have submitted evidence to the Victoria inquiry, and the Law Institute of Victoria has advocated changes to the statute of limitations.
Western Australia
The Criminal Procedure Act 2004 outlines the statute of limitations, stating that a simple offence shall have a statute of limitations of 12 months. However, all crimes have no statute of limitations. Furthermore, a person may be charged with a simple offence after 12 months' if the person consents to such a charge being laid, or if that offence has a different statute of limitations as provided by law.Canada
Criminal
A criminal statute of limitations does exist in Canada, although for most crimes it is rather weak. Offences under the Criminal Code fall into one of two base categories: summary and indictable, with indictable being the more serious of the two. Additionally, most offences are hybrid offenses, where they may be tried as either summary or indictable depending on the severity of the crime; this is done at the prosecutor's discretion.Summary proceedings have a limitation period of 12 months unless waived. Hybrid offences cannot be prosecuted as summary after the limitation period, but can still be upgraded to indictable.
Non-hybrid summary offences cannot be prosecuted at all after the limitation period. Few offences fall under this category.
Indictable offences do not have a limitation period; a defendant can be charged at any future date. In sexual assault cases in particular, men and women have been charged and convicted more than 40 years after the abuse had been committed.
Hybrid offences can be charged as indictable if prosecutors deem it to be in the public interest and serious enough to be worth their resources, making the limitation period of 12 months somewhat weak or even irrelevant in many instances. Someone who has committed a hybrid offence in the past can never be truly immune from prosecution simply because their crime is "out of statute", unlike in other jurisdictions. Some hybrid offences may have aggravating factors which automatically make them indictable offences, removing the limitation period entirely.
Civil
Limitation periods for civil cases vary by province.| Province | Length |
| Alberta | 2 years |
| British Columbia | 2 years |
| Manitoba | 2 years |
| New Brunswick | 2 to 10 years |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 2 to 10 years |
| Northwest Territories | 2 to 10 years |
| Nova Scotia | 2 years |
| Nunavut | 1 to 10 years |
| Ontario | 2 to 15 years |
| Prince Edward Island | 1 to 10 years |
| Québec | 3 years |
| Saskatchewan | 2 years |
| Yukon | 1 to 10 years |
Claims filed in Federal Court are generally subject to the limitation period of the province it arises from; in other cases the limitation period is 6 years.
Finland
In Finland, the authority of a prosecuting official to bring charges for a crime expires after a set period of time has passed since the act. This period is 20, 10, 5, or 2, years depending on the seriousness of the offence. Offences punishable with life imprisonment, such as murder and treason, do not expire. Sexual offences committed against minors do not expire before the victim reaches 23 or 28 years of age, depending on the nature of the offence.Germany
In Germany, the statute of limitations on crimes varies by type of crime, with the highest statute of limitation being 30 years for voluntary manslaughter. Murder, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression have no statute of limitations.In Germany, the crime of murder used to have a 20-year statute of limitations. In 1969, the statute of limitations for murder was extended from 20 to 30 years. The limitations were abolished altogether in 1979, in order to prevent Nazi criminals from avoiding criminal liability.
For most other criminal offences, the statute of limitations is set by Section 78 of the Criminal Code as follows:
- 30 years for offences which are punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment for life;
- 20 years for offences which are punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of over 10 years but not by imprisonment for life;
- 10 years for offences which are punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of over 5 years but no more than 10 years;
- 5 years for offences which are punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of over 1 year but no more than 5 years;
- 3 years for all other offences.
India
The statute of limitations in India is defined by the Limitations Act, 1963.The statute of limitations for criminal offences is governed by Sec. 468 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Indonesia
The statutes of limitations in Indonesia are defined by articles 136-139 of Law No. 1 of 2023 on Criminal Code, and varies by type of crimes and ages of the perpetrators. According to article 136 of the Criminal Code, as well as article 7 and article 46 of Law No. 26 of 2000 on Human Rights Courts, the limits are as follows:- For crimes committed by adults:
- * 3 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 1 year imprisonment and/or by only a maximum criminal fine of category III.
- * 6 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 3 years imprisonment.
- * 12 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 7 years imprisonment.
- * 18 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 15 years imprisonment.
- * 20 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, life imprisonment, or capital punishment.
- For crimes committed by children:
- * 1 year for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 1 year imprisonment and/or by only a maximum criminal fine of category III.
- * 2 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 3 years imprisonment.
- * 4 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 7 years imprisonment.
- * 6 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 15 years imprisonment.
- * around 6.6 years for crimes which are punishable by a maximum of 20 years imprisonment, life imprisonment, or capital punishment.
- No limit for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Ireland
New Zealand
The statutes of limitations in New Zealand are defined by section 25 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011. The limits are as follows:- 6 months for offences which are punishable by a maximum of 3 months imprisonment or a $7,500 fine.
- 12 months for offences which are punishable by a maximum of 6 months imprisonment or a $20,000 fine.
- 5 years for offences which are punishable by a maximum of 3 years imprisonment, although this can be extended with the consent of the Solicitor-General.
- No limit for offences which are punishable by more than 3 years imprisonment.
Norway
Philippines
In the Philippines, the Revised Penal Code has different limitation periods, based on the penalty of the crime:- Reclusión perpetua or reclusión temporal : 20 years
- Other afflictive penalties : 15 years
- Correctional penalties: 10 years, except:
- * Arresto mayor : 5 years
- * Libel and other similar offenses: 1 year
- * Oral defamation and slander: 6 months
- Light penalties : 2 months
South Korea
In July 2015, the National Assembly abolished a 25-year limit on first degree murder; it had previously been extended from 15 to 25 years in December 2007.Turkey
Turkish Code of Obligations sets the general limitation period to ten years, which applies where the law does not provide a specific limitation period.There is no statute of limitations for sexual offenses committed against minors, however, under both the Turkish Penal Code and Turkish Civil Code.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has no statute of limitations for criminal offences beyond minor summary offences ; the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 requires that criminal proceedings for summary offences be brought within six months. To obtain a conviction in "some road traffic offences", the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 requires that the driver must be notified within 14 days of the offence of the intention to prosecute.For civil claims, the period of validity varies depending on the type of claim. For example, a claim from a simple contract can no longer be pursued after six years.
United States
In the United States, statutes of limitations may apply in criminal procedures and civil lawsuits. Statutes of limitations vary significantly among U.S. jurisdictions.A government agency is permitted by the Congress to create under federal regulations its own statute of limitations.
Retroactive extensions
The U.S. Supreme Court held in 2003 in Stogner v. California by a 5–4 majority that California's retroactive extension of the criminal statute of limitations for sexual offenses committed against minors was an unconstitutional ex post facto law.Civil statutes
A civil statute of limitations applies to a non-criminal legal action, including a tort or contract case. If the statute of limitations expires before a lawsuit is filed, the defendant may raise the statute of limitations as an affirmative defense to seek dismissal of the claim. The exact time period depends on both the state and the type of claim. Most fall in the range of one to ten years, with two to three years being most common.Criminal statutes
A criminal statute of limitations defines a time period during which charges must be initiated for a criminal offense. If a charge is filed after the statute of limitations expires, the defendant may obtain dismissal of the charge.Initiation of charges
The statute of limitations in a criminal case only runs until a criminal charge is filed and a warrant issued, even if the defendant is a fugitive. When the identity of a defendant is not known, some jurisdictions provide mechanisms to initiate charges and thus stop the statute of limitations from running. For example, some states allow an indictment of a John Doe defendant based upon a DNA profile derived from evidence obtained through a criminal investigation. Although rare, a grand jury can issue an indictment in absentia for high-profile crimes to get around an upcoming statute of limitations deadline. One example is the skyjacking of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 by D. B. Cooper in 1971. The identity of D. B. Cooper remains unknown, and he was indicted under the name "John Doe, aka Dan Cooper."Heinous crimes
Crimes which are widely considered heinous have no statute of limitations. Although there is usually no statute of limitations for murder, judges have been known to dismiss murder charges in cold cases if they feel that the delay violates the defendant's right to a speedy trial. For example, waiting many years for an alibi witness to die before commencing a murder trial would be unconstitutional.Military law
Under the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, desertion has no statute of limitations.Maritime Injury Law
Under , "Except as otherwise provided by law, a civil action for damages for personal injury or death arising out of a maritime tort must be brought within 3 years after the cause of action arose." There are some exceptions to this, primarily with regard to Jones Act cases filed against the government, in which case the statute of limitations can be less than 2 years.
State laws
| State | Misdemeanor | Felony | Notes |
| Connecticut | 1 year |
| A bill was proposed to abolish the statute of limitations for most sex offenses, but it was not submitted for a vote in the state senate. Efforts continue to pass legislation to extend the limitations period for the prosecution of sex offenses. |
| Michigan | 6 years | Statute of limitation tolls if defendant is not a resident and did not usually and publicly reside in the state. See | |
| North Carolina | 2 years | No limits | No statute of limitations for "malicious misdemeanors", per |
| Utah |
Exceptions
Pursuant to the legal doctrine of tolling, U.S. jurisdictions recognize exceptions to statutes of limitation that may allow for the prosecution of a crime or civil lawsuit even after the statute of limitations would otherwise have expired. Some states stop the clock for a suspect who is not residing within the state.The right to speedy trial may potentially derail a felony prosecution after many years have passed, including in states that have no statute of limitations for the charged offense.