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Limitation Act 1980: Difference between revisions
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See the [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58 text in the act itself] for more [[tedious]] detail about what happens in the case of personal injury or death. | See the [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58 text in the act itself] for more [[tedious]] detail about what happens in the case of personal injury or death. | ||
===It extinguishes the right to take legal action, not the debt=== | |||
Of particular interest to regulated financial services firms. The expiry of a limitation period takes away a claimant’s right to [[Litigation|litigate]]; it does not extinguish a [[debt]] in itself. Primarily, this means a would-be plaintiff loses the right to ''argue'' that it is owed money. If you are definitely owed money, and you know this, and so does your debtor, and six years after you were entitled to be paid that money you still haven’t got round to putting your foot down and insisting it is paid to you then, more fool you for being asleep at your own switch for so long that you’ve lost a big stick with which to threaten your debtor, but the debtor does, in the abstract, still owe you the money. He can’t write it off his balance sheet altogether. If your debtor happens to be a regulated financial services provider — you know, a [[bank]] — its obligations to treat its customers fairly, which will be policed not by the Queen’s Bench Division but the [[Financial Conduct Authority]]. The FCA would look very dimly on an institution that reneged on a debt just because its customer no longer was entitled to go to the court to enforce it. It also rather cuts the nose off the cheese vis-a-vis the [[commercial imperative]] and the [[JC]]’s favourite sage savoury: ''[[non mentula esse]]''. | |||
===[[Set-off]], Geoffrey Boycott’s grandmother and ''Der fliegende Holländer''=== | ===[[Set-off]], Geoffrey Boycott’s grandmother and ''Der fliegende Holländer''=== | ||
Curious coda: The [[Limitation Act]]’s limitation period may deprives you of your right to take ''legal action'' to recover a [[debt]], but doesn’t ''extinguish'' the debt itself. The limitation is on the remedy not the right. | Curious coda: The [[Limitation Act]]’s limitation period may deprives you of your right to take ''legal action'' to recover a [[debt]], but doesn’t ''extinguish'' the debt itself. The limitation is on the remedy not the right. | ||