Limitation period

When asked to allow an amendment to bring a claim in what might be outside the limitation period, the court was not necessarily restricted to looking at the prejudice that had been suffered since the issue of the claim form but was entitled to compare the position in which the defendant would find itself if the new claim was allowed to go ahead outside the period and the position in which he would have been if the claim now sought to be put forward had been brought forward with reasonable expedition.

Were it otherwise a person who brought an action six months before the expiry of the limitation period who tried to substitute a new claim one month after the period expired would be in a more favourable position than someone who initiated an action two years after the accrual of the cause of action and sought to add a new claim one month after it expired.