Statute of Limitations

Recently, there has been some discussion regarding the expiration of the statute of limitations and whether filing a prior arbitration tolls or suspends the statute. The statute of limitations pertains to the time allowed for legal action to be taken on a loss.

There is a belief that when submitting the original arbitration, the filing will toll the statute, which will then allow for the filing of supplemental damages after the statute of limitations has run. In most situations, this is not the case, and each cause of action must be filed prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations. An exception would be when the filing company submits applicable case law or state statute that supports their position that the original arbitration tolled the statute. 

Keep in mind that if a filing company files their supplement after the statute of limitations has expired, the Responding Party is required to raise a jurisdictional exclusion as related to the statute of limitations. If the jurisdictional exclusion is not raised by the Responding Party, the arbitrator will be unable to take the statute of limitations into consideration and will only be able to consider the damage dispute, as raised by the Responding Party.