Today I’m going to answer the question: “I filed my suit within the Statute of Limitations; can it be time barred anyway?” And the answer to that question is yes, it can be; and the reason could be because of an equitable defense called laches.

Laches means that you waited too long to file your suit or to ask the court to give you some other relief. Because you waited so long, the other party has relied on your inaction and taken some steps, whatever those steps might be, because you haven’t filed your lawsuit or you haven’t otherwise taken any position in court. When that happens and the other side has detrimentally relied upon you to not take an action; that is called laches and it can bar you from getting relief.

A classic reason for laches could also occur when the passage of time has made the evidence stale, witnesses may forget or may die, documents may have been destroyed. When you took so long to assert your position, the other side is prejudiced because they don’t have the evidence they need to defend their claim for any other reason than due to the passage of time. Although your claim may not be time barred by an applicable Statute of Limitations, you may still not be able to get to court because of the Doctrine of Laches.

If you’re concerned that your claim is time barred, please pick up the phone and call me at phone number 410-484-9000. I would love to hear from you.