How Legal Deadlines Can Affect a Claim

Almost every legal matter has a clock attached to it somewhere. Some clocks are obvious — a court date printed on a notice. Others are invisible until they have already run out.

Two different kinds of clock

It helps to separate two categories that people frequently mix together.

Deadlines to start something

These govern how long after an event a claim may be brought. They are commonly discussed under the heading “statute of limitations,” and the period varies substantially depending on what kind of claim it is. Contract claims, property claims, wage claims and others are treated differently, and some categories have additional requirements that must be satisfied before a claim can even be filed.

What matters practically is that these periods are not uniform, and the event that starts the clock is not always the event a person would assume. Determining both is legal work.

Deadlines to respond to something

These are the ones that arrive by mail or by hand. A summons, a petition, a notice from an agency, a demand under a contract — each may carry a period within which a response is required. The period depends on the document, the court, and often on how the document was delivered to you.

These deadlines are shorter than people expect. They also tend to be strict, because they exist to keep proceedings moving.

Why missing one is so costly

A missed response deadline in a civil action can result in a default. Undoing a default is a separate proceeding with its own requirements, and it is considerably harder than responding on time would have been. A period for bringing a claim that has expired may end the matter regardless of its merits.

This asymmetry is the practical point of the whole article: the cost of acting early is a phone call. The cost of acting late can be the entire matter.

Things that do not stop the clock

People often assume that a deadline is suspended while something else is happening. Frequently it is not. In general, do not assume a clock has stopped because:

• you are negotiating with the other side;
• an insurer or agency is “still reviewing” the matter;
• you are waiting on a document, a record or a translation;
• the other party told you not to worry about it;
• you have been trying to reach someone who does not return calls.

Any of these may or may not affect timing in a particular matter. The point is that none of them can be assumed to, and none should be relied on without advice specific to your situation.

What to do with a dated document

1. Write down the date you received it, on the document itself if you like. Keep the envelope.
2. Read it for a date or a period. Many notices state a response window somewhere in the text.
3. Do not discard anything, including pages that appear to be boilerplate.
4. Contact an attorney promptly rather than after gathering everything else. Documents can be gathered while a response is being prepared.

The honest summary

Deadlines are technical, they vary, and they are unforgiving. That combination is exactly why an attorney's review is worth having early rather than late. If you have received something with a date on it, the useful next step is a conversation, not a search engine.

If you would like to prepare for that conversation, our article on what to bring to an initial legal consultation covers the practical side.