New Limitation Act Has Passed First Reading

Bill 34, a new Limitation Act has been introduced into the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia on April 16, 2012. It has passed First Reading.

The proposed new legislation simplifies the current Limitation Act to some extent, adopting a limitation period of two years from the date the person suing knew, or should reasonably have known, that he or she had a claim. The current Limitation Act has a variety of different limitaiton periods, including 2 years, 6 years and 10 years for different types of claims.

It should be noted that not all claims will be covered by the two year limitation period under the proposed new legislation, and some types of claims will continue to be governed by limitation periods set out in other statutes, such as the Wills Variation Act.

The new Act will, if passed, reduce the ultimate limitation period for most claims from 30 years to 15 years.

Bill 34 includes many of the recommendations in the B.C. Ministry of the Attorney General's “White Paper on Limitation Act Reform,” which I summarized in this previous post.