West­min James

When a per­son has a right to sue some­one the law places time lim­its with­in which you can bring your ac­tion. These time lim­its are called lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­ods. If le­gal pro­ceed­ings are not start­ed with­in this pe­ri­od then the right to sue is lost. In Trinidad and To­ba­go the Lim­i­ta­tion of Cer­tain Ac­tions Act sets out the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­ods for dif­fer­ent types of claims. It pre­vents abus­es in the sys­tems where­by a claimant does noth­ing for many years and then brings an ac­tion af­ter the de­fen­dant may no longer be in a po­si­tion to de­fend it.

When does the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od be­gin?

Where the claimant is su­ing for dam­ages for neg­li­gence, nui­sance or any oth­er tort, or for per­son­al in­jury or breach of a du­ty of care, the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od runs from the date when the dam­age first oc­curs. For ex­am­ple, if a faulty seat­belt fails to pre­vent a per­son from in­jury in a car ac­ci­dent, the time for bring­ing a claim against the car's man­u­fac­tur­er would be­gin on the date of the ac­ci­dent.

In cer­tain cas­es, the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od does not be­gin un­til the claimant finds out, or ought to have known that he or she has a claim against an­oth­er. This de­pends on the facts of each case. Al­so, if a de­fen­dant ad­mits to the claimant that the claimant has a valid claim, then the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od runs from the time of the ad­mis­sion. The ad­mis­sion must be made be­fore the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od ex­pires. The ad­mis­sion can­not re­vive a claim that has al­ready ex­pired. This ad­mis­sion of the right to sue must be made ei­ther in writ­ing or by a pay­ment to the claimant.

Fi­nal­ly, peo­ple un­der 18 years or peo­ple who are un­able to man­age their own af­fairs due to phys­i­cal or men­tal im­pair­ment, are con­sid­ered to be un­der a le­gal "dis­abil­i­ty." For such per­sons, the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od starts from the time they are no longer dis­abled. When the dis­abil­i­ty ends the full-time pe­ri­od is still avail­able.

Ex­tend­ing lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od

The Act al­lows the court to ex­tend the time for start­ing pro­ceed­ings in de­serv­ing sit­u­a­tions, thus soft­en­ing the harsh im­pact of miss­ing a lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od. How­ev­er, to avoid the lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od from ex­pir­ing you should see an at­tor­ney as soon as pos­si­ble.

• This col­umn is not le­gal ad­vice. If you have a le­gal prob­lem, you should con­sult a le­gal ad­vis­er.

Claim Lim­i­ta­tion pe­ri­od

Con­tract: 4 years

Tort: 4 years

Re­cov­ery of mon­ey stat­ed in an Act: 4 years

Dam­ages for neg­li­gence, nui­sance or

breach of du­ty and per­son­al in­juries: 4 years

En­forc­ing a judg­ment: 12 years

Ju­di­cial re­view: 3 months

Work­men's com­pen­sa­tion: 1 year