Limitation Periods in Personal Injury Actions

Every practitioner who conducts personal injury litigation will come across cases involving a limitation problem. Actions in respect of personal injuries or death are subject to special rules on limitation periods, which may postpone the date on which the three-year-period starts to run, andconfer a discretion on the court to allow an action to proceed notwithstanding the expiry of the limitation period. The effect of this discretion is that it is always open to a plaintiff, even with a very stale claim, to argue that his action should be permitted. This book provides the practitioner with a comprehensive account of the law on limitation periods in personal injury actions. In particular, it discusses in detail the court's approach to determining a plaintiff's date of knowledge, which is the crucial factor in the commencement of the limitationperiod, and it provides a full analysis of the principles applied to the Courts' exercise of discretion when considering whether to "disapply" the limitation period.