In this week’s Freedom Friday blog and email newsletter, I want to talk about an important topic, and one that I get asked about by clients, especially those defending lawsuits, all the time. That question is, “What is the statute of limitations for this case?” There is a deadline for filing lawsuits in Oklahoma and depending on the type of the lawsuit at hand, there are different statutes of limitations. In today’s Freedom Friday blog, I’m answering the question, “What is the statute of limitations?”
The statute of limitations is a defined period of time, or a deadline, for filing a lawsuit. Oklahoma law sets specific deadlines for different types of lawsuits. Some of the most common statutes of limitations are five (5) years for breach of contract (usually calculated from the date of last payment or date of breach), and two (2) years for most “tort” actions including personal injury, property damage, fraud, and wrongful death. There is a one (1) year statute of limitations for defamation or libel cases, and that is one (1) year from the date when the defamatory statement was made. In all cases, the clock starts running whenever the incident occurs, and in some cases, like fraud, when the damage was discovered by the plaintiff.
There are also certain situations in which the statute of limitations can be paused or tolled. These situations include when a plaintiff is a minor at the time when the incident occurred and then the statute of limitations does not run until the plaintiff reaches the age of adulthood at age 18. Also, the discovery rule itself can toll the statute of limitations in certain cases, such as medical or professional malpractice cases.
The statute of limitations can affect a lawsuit in several ways. If the lawsuit is filed too late, the Court can dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that it is past the statute of limitations.
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