2. Limitation
Accrual and statutory time limits for tort, contract, contribution, personal injury, fatal-accident and latent-damage claims.
How to study for BSB Civil Litigation
Prepare separately for closed-book recall and open-book application while keeping every step anchored to the exact syllabus version for your sitting.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Limitation analysis starts by identifying the cause of action, accrual date and the date proceedings are brought, then applies the matching statutory period.
Exam cue: Build a timeline with accrual, knowledge, disability, concealment, issue and any judgment date before calculating.
Concept 2
The syllabus distinguishes the ordinary six-year periods for simple contract and tort from special regimes for contribution, personal injury, fatal accidents and latent damage.
Exam cue: Do not apply the personal-injury knowledge test automatically to property-damage or pure-economic-loss negligence.
Concept 3
Disability, fraud, deliberate concealment, mistake and the personal-injury discretion can alter the ordinary result, while latent-damage claims may also face an overriding longstop.
Exam cue: Check both the primary period and any separate longstop, extension, postponement or discretion.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Counting from the date the client first consulted a lawyer rather than the legally relevant accrual or knowledge date.
Guardrail: Do not import a rule or commentary paragraph merely because the White Book cross-refers to it; the BSB syllabus expressly defines what is examinable.
Treating every negligence claim as subject to the three-year personal-injury period.
Guardrail: Do not import a rule or commentary paragraph merely because the White Book cross-refers to it; the BSB syllabus expressly defines what is examinable.
Assuming a claimant can rely on an extension or judicial discretion without satisfying its statutory conditions.
Guardrail: Do not import a rule or commentary paragraph merely because the White Book cross-refers to it; the BSB syllabus expressly defines what is examinable.
Memory anchors
Simple contract
The ordinary limitation period is six years from accrual of the cause of action.
Ordinary tort
The ordinary limitation period is six years from accrual, subject to special statutory regimes.
Contribution
A contribution claim has its own two-year period from the date the right to contribution accrues.
Personal injury
The primary period is three years from accrual or the claimant's statutory date of knowledge, if later.
Latent damage
Non-personal-injury negligence may use a knowledge-based three-year period, subject to the statutory fifteen-year longstop.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A supplier breaches a simple contract on 12 May 2020. No later acknowledgement or special extension applies. What is the ordinary limitation position?
Negligent design immediately causes cracking to a warehouse, but the owner discovers it four years later. The claim is not for personal injury. Which regimes must be considered?
Answer all questions to submit.
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Move forward only after this module is stable.
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