Also known as:time frame · time frames · time-framed · time-framing · time limit · deadline · statute of limitations
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A principle that determines whether a claim or prosecution remains enforceable after a statutory time bar has run, by examining subsequent acknowledgments, relation-back amendments, or revival statutes.
Sources & Authorities· 29 primary sources
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Cases
Statutes
How it applies
Common Examples
6
Relation Back in Amended Pleading
Tanya Tang files a complaint against True North Logistics alleging breach of a delivery contract. After the statute of limitations expires, she seeks to amend the complaint to add a fraud claim arising from the same shipment events. The court allows the amendment to relate back because the law providing the limitations period permits it when the new claim stems from the conduct set out in the original pleading.
Promise to Pay Barred Debt
Tristan Thompson owes Threshold Capital on a long-overdue loan that is now time-barred. Thompson sends a letter acknowledging the present debt and promising to pay half. The acknowledgment revives the obligation because a promise to pay an antecedent indebtedness remains binding even if enforcement would otherwise be blocked by the statute of limitations.
Theresa Tucker and Theodore Tucker end their cohabitation. Tucker sues for breach of an oral agreement made during the relationship. The claim is timely because it accrued on breach and may be brought during or after cohabitation subject to the contractual statute of limitations.
Attorney Concealment of Missed Deadline
Tori Taylor's lawyer misses the filing deadline on her personal-injury claim, pays her personally to hide the error, and never advises her to seek independent counsel about a malpractice action. The conduct constitutes serious professional misconduct warranting discipline because the concealment and conflict of interest go beyond ordinary negligence.
Single Act of Negligence Not Discipline
Timothy Tang's attorney miscalculates the statute of limitations and the claim is lost. The error supports a civil malpractice suit but does not by itself warrant bar discipline because a single negligent act does not demonstrate unfitness to practice law.
Retroactive Revival of Prosecution Barred
Torchlight Media is charged under a statute that revives a previously time-barred criminal prosecution by extending the limitations period after expiration. The charge violates the Ex Post Facto Clause because the law retroactively alters the quantum of evidence sufficient to convict and reopens punishment for past conduct.
Common questions
Frequently Asked
2
How does cumulative provocation interact with time framing in manslaughter cases?+
The supplied authorities address only limitation periods and revival. They contain no discussion of provocation or manslaughter.
Supporting sources
Does time framing allow consideration of remote events in provocation analysis?+
The supplied authorities address only limitation periods and revival. They contain no discussion of provocation or manslaughter.
Supporting sources
378 U.S. 1 (1964)Criminal Procedure
…to these questions could not tend to incriminate him because the defenses of double jeopardy and the running of the one-year statute of limitations on misdemeanors would defeat any prosecution growing out of his answers to the first five questions. As for the sixth question, the court held that petitioner's failure to explain how a…