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Questions tagged [statute-of-limitations]

A statutory "clock" that determines how long after an alleged crime charges may be brought.

Canonical answers:

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Why do statutes of limitations exist?

I don't understand: why artificially create a set of deadlines before which one crime or another can be brought to the conviction stage? Why not be able to investigate and prosecute for an indefinite period of time after a crime has been committed?…
Sergey Zolotarev
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Is it legal to intentionally wait before filing a copyright lawsuit to maximize profits?

Let's say someone uses my intellectual property without my consent and uses it for commercial purposes. Can I wait until they've made many millions of dollars off of my work, so that I can sue and take a large portion of or all of that money? This…
Some Guy
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What would be the significance of a legal provision specifying a period of 12 months, rather than 1 year?

Is it just a matter of stylistic aesthetics? Could 12 months realistically ever be taken to mean anything other than what is totally synonymous with a year? The legalistic devil's advocate in me in tempted to look to differences in the numbers of…
JosephCorrectEnglishPronouns
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Can a Statute of Limitations claim be rejected by the court?

Suppose a Catholic organization in a Western country runs one or more childrens' homes. The idea is to provide good care of orphans, poor children and children of minorities. In reality there is poor nutrition for the children and there are other…
M. Wind
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Is there a time limit to initiating a legal complaint?

In the case of an injury that continues to affect the Plaintiff, is there some time limit for filing legal documents with a court?
Maria Alaniz
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What happens when evidence comes to light outside the Statute of Limitations period?

I suffered damage as a result of defamation, through a previous employer breaching laws against disclosure of information. I spoke to a lawyer at that time and was told my chances of success were small, and that they would block discovery. I don't…
Roger Ng
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Does the statute of limitations apply in the case of Tara Reade?

From this article https://www.businessinsider.com/former-biden-staffer-tara-reade-files-sexual-assault-complaint-2020-4 A woman who accused Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her when she worked for him in 1993 has…
user1475412
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How are old allegations handled?

The current wave of sexual abuse allegations are (often) about actions that happened a LONG time ago (15+ years). I thought that, due to the long time, these crimes will be time-barred. Is this true? or can the accused be prosecuted for old crimes?
nonlawuser
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What is the limitation period for a violation of the Computer Misuse Act of 1990's provision(s) on phishing?

I came across a story about a twenty-something year old male who setup a fake website in order to 'phish' for usernames and passwords for a popular game. After acquiring the credentials he would then login in to these accounts and remove the in-game…
Terry
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How does the statute of limitations on defamation work?

My understanding is that defamation has a very short window for a lawsuit, like one year. So suppose a libelous statement was published in a widely circulated journal, call it the New York Times, and the victim didn't see it when it first came out.…
Libra
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How can anyone own land without theft?

People are said to own land when they purchase it from the previous owner, but if you follow the chain of ownership back far enough, there must have been a point where there was no previous owner and someone simply claimed that land by force (or…
Mick
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Could an international organisation be sued in New York, if they have a presence there but the crime happened overseas?

Using sexual assault legislation as an example. New York State Senate passed the Adult Survivors Act in June 2021. This act created a one-year look back window for survivors of sex crimes who were 18 years of age or older at the time these crimes…
neo
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Does a criminal complaint filed under an alias toll the statute of limitations of an offense?

Generally, aside from murder, many criminal statutes prohibit the filing of criminal charges after a certain amount of time has passed. For the purposes of this question, assume the police do not know the true identity of the criminal who committed…
Viktor
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Which state's statue of limitations for debts applies, for credit card debt?

I used to live in South Carolina, USA and lost my job. As a result I defaulted on credit card debt. I have not paid anything on it for the last year and the debts were "Charged Off", and are in various stages of collections. I had to move to Texas…
Enigmae
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Lawyer forgot to file the paperwork and now has no case: what to do?

A close friend of mine had a legitimate suit against a large business. He was directly harmed, the business was caught and punished (for harming him and many other clients), and my friend joined a group lawsuit against this business. The lawyer…
Ken - Enough about Monica
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