Paula Jefferson provides an update on limitation
Approaching the 30th anniversary of a major statute, one might think that its interpretation would be fairly well established and litigation as to the meaning of its words and phrases would be minimal. Sadly, with regard to the Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980), that seems far from the case. This continuing and costly pursuit of clarification surely supports the need for reform. It is now nearly 10 years since the Law Commission identified and proposed changes. The government last year confirmed its intention to revisit limitation but, at its earliest, a draft Bill will not be published before July 2009.
In the meantime practitioners and their clients are left with a wealth of judgments and commentary from which to try and determine how and when the issue of limitation will apply. Looking at the decisions in 2008 and applying them in practice, the current situation is as follows.
Fittingly, to start the year, January 2008 saw the decision in A v Hoare
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