Also known as: time bar · timebar · time-barred · time barred · time-barring
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A bar to a legal claim arising from the lapse of a defined length of time, especially one contained in a statute of limitations.
Theo Thomas committed an offense in 1998. The original limitations period expired in 2003. In 2004 a legislature enacted a statute extending the period for that offense. Prosecutors charged Thomas under the new statute. The court dismissed the prosecution because the extension violated the Ex Post Facto Clause by reopening a time-barred case.
Tracy Torres filed a multistate libel suit in New Hampshire against a national magazine. The claim would have been time-barred in every other state. New Hampshire's six-year period kept the action alive. The court exercised jurisdiction even though most injuries occurred elsewhere.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Titan Industries discovered that a painting stolen decades earlier was held by Tristan Thompson. The museum made a prompt demand for return. Thompson refused. The court held the replevin action timely because the three-year limitations period began only upon refusal, not at the original theft.
Tabitha Taylor brought a class action challenging a durational residency rule. Before class certification her individual claim became time-barred under a new statute. The court allowed the class action to proceed because unnamed class members retained live claims unaffected by her personal time bar.
Timothy Tang sought to join a nationwide asbestos settlement class. Many class members' claims were already time-barred under state law when the class action was filed. The court refused certification because the time-barred claims could not be revived by the class proceeding.
Trevor Tate filed a class action asserting claims subject to a one-year statute of limitations. His own claim became time-barred before certification. The court kept the class action alive because other class members' claims remained timely and unaffected by his personal time bar.
A federal diversity dismissal based on a state statute of limitations is not automatically an adjudication on the merits for claim-preclusion purposes. The receiving state's preclusion law determines whether the time-bar dismissal bars a later timely action in that state.
A statute that revives a time-barred criminal prosecution by extending the limitations period after expiration violates the Ex Post Facto Clause. The extension retroactively alters the quantum of evidence sufficient to convict and reopens punishment for past conduct.
A firm that completely lacks any docketing system for tracking notice deadlines and allows a client's claim to become time-barred breaches its duty of reasonable care. The client's internal monitoring procedures do not relieve the firm of its professional obligation to calendar legal deadlines.
Laches is not a rigid time bar. Courts weigh unreasonable delay and resulting prejudice as one factor when deciding whether to grant an injunction, but the doctrine does not automatically defeat equitable relief.
…That situation is not presented in appellant's case, for the durational residency requirement enforced by Iowa does not at this time bar her from the Iowa courts. Unless we were to speculate that she may move from Iowa, only to return and later seek a divorce within one year from her return, the concerns that prompted this…