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  • BC legal news: new Limitation Act comes into effect

BC legal news: new Limitation Act comes into effect

British Columbia’s new Limitation Act will come into effect June 1, 2013. According to the provincial government, the new Limitation Act will make the law easier to understand and bring B.C.’s law more in line with other provinces. Of course, only time will tell if this will be the case, and, as with any change in regulations, the new law may prompt the need for access to legal services in Victoria once the ramifications are better known.

For some background, the Limitation Act sets out the time periods people have to start a proceeding to sue one another in the civil justice system.

While many other laws set limitation periods, the Limitation Act sets the default regime, which means that unless another law sets the applicable limitation period, the Limitation Act applies.

Once again, according to the provincial government, the Limitation Act was reformed for a number of reasons, including:

  • The current Limitation Act had not been comprehensively updated since its introduction in 1975.
  • The Uniform Law Conference of Canada put forward a model limitations statute as a suggested framework to develop a harmonized (consistent) approach to limitations law across the country.
  • Independent law reform bodies in B.C. recommended reform in 1990 and again in 2002.

Key Changes

From the government website, key changes include:

  • moving from a variety of basic limitation periods, based on the type of legal action, to a single two-year basic limitation period for all civil claims. Exceptions to this are civil claims that enforce a monetary judgment, exempted claims and actions that have limitation periods set by other statutes;
  • moving from a general 30-year ultimate limitation period to a single 15-year ultimate limitation period;
  • changing the commencement model of the ultimate limitation period from an “accrual” model to a model that starts the clock running in the ultimate limitation period based on an “act or omission;” and
  • transition rules.

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