What is the deadline for starting a Civil case?

by | Dec 4, 2019 | Media

What is the deadline for starting a Civil case?

If you have a Civil case and are thinking of starting the claim in Court, you must check that the validity period of the claim hasn’t expired yet. The principle of limitation is a legal rule that stops a person from starting legal action for a case after a certain amount of time has elapsed since their claim first arose.

The purpose of this rule is to:

  1. Protect unsuspecting Defendants against being pursued for claims many years after the incident occurred
  2. Make sure that legal actions are tried by the Courts in a timely manner.

What are the time limits to start a Civil Claim?

Generally, a legal action based on a contract or a tort (civil wrong) must be brought within 6 years from the cause of action resulting.

For cases involving personal injury, negligence, nuisance or breach of duty, the time limits are:

  1. Within 3 years of the date the cause of action resulting, or;
  2. Within 3 years from the date, the Plaintiff had knowledge of the right to take legal action.

If a person doesn’t start their legal claim within the specified time limits their action will be time-barred, meaning
that their legal rights are terminated.

So there you have it, some basic information on what limitation periods are in a Civil case.

If you need legal advice or help, call or WhatsApp us at +65 8886 0278 and we’ll contact you to discuss your case.

About the author

About the author

Jonathan Wong

Jonathan is the Founder and Managing Director of Tembusu Law. He is also the founder of LawGuide Singapore, a prominent legaltech startup which successfully created and launched Singapore’s first legal chatbot in 2017.