Limitation period calculator (Limitation Act 1980)
calculate_limitation_periodWorks out the last day to bring a civil claim in England and Wales under the Limitation Act 1980, strictly: personal injury, clinical negligence and industrial disease (s.11, with children and capacity under s.28, death under s.11(5) and s.12, child sexual abuse under s.11ZA, armed forces), housing disrepair (a continuing breach: the 6-year look-back from the issue date), contract, tort and latent damage with the 15-year longstop, deeds, the Defective Premises Act, contribution, defamation, defective products and judgments. It never infers a date of knowledge: give it. Where the law is unsettled it gives the earlier (safe) date first, never moves a last day off a weekend or bank holiday, and treats s.33 as a discretion, never a date.
Tool call template
Replace each placeholder with a value matching the input schema. Only required parameters are included; add optional parameters as needed.
{
"id": 1,
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"arguments": {
"kind": "<kind>"
},
"name": "calculate_limitation_period"
}
}Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| dob | No | "pi": the date of birth, if the injured person may have been under 18 when the claim accrued. | |
| died | No | "pi": the injured person has died. | |
| kind | Yes | The kind of claim: "pi" (Personal injury, clinical negligence or industrial disease (including NIHL)), "housing" (Housing disrepair: the tenancy covenants), "contract" (Breach of contract), "tort" (Negligence or another tort, not personal injury), "deed" (A deed (specialty)), "dpa" (Defective Premises Act 1972, s.1 (building work)), "contribution" (Contribution between wrongdoers), "defamation" (Defamation or malicious falsehood), "cpa" (Defective product (Consumer Protection Act 1987)), "judgment" (An action on a judgment (s.24)). | |
| abuse | No | "pi": personal injury caused by sexual abuse while under 18 (s.11ZA). | |
| death | No | Where died: the date of death. | |
| issue | No | "housing": the date the claim will be issued (defaults to today). | |
| latent | No | "tort": latent damage under s.14A (give knowledge as the s.14A starting date, and longstopFrom). | |
| accrual | No | The date the cause of action accrued: the injury, breach, damage, publication, completion of the dwelling, judgment or award. With deadline true, the deadline date itself. Not used for "housing". | |
| pre1987 | No | "pi": armed forces service or exposure before 15 May 1987 (Crown immunity, a liability bar, not a date). | |
| deadline | No | "contract" or "deed": the breach was a failure to do something, or to pay, by a deadline; accrual is then the deadline date itself. | |
| overseas | No | "pi": injury on an overseas armed forces operation (s.33(1ZA)). | |
| housingPi | No | "housing": the claim includes damages for personal injury. | |
| knowledge | No | "pi" and "cpa": the date of knowledge (s.14), if later than accrual, as you rely on it (never inferred). "tort" with latent true: the s.14A starting date. | |
| prKnowledge | No | Where died: the personal representative's date of knowledge, if later (s.11(5)). | |
| abuseSettled | No | Where abuse: the claim was settled, or decided by a court, before 29 June 2026. | |
| longstopFrom | No | "tort": the date of the last negligent act or omission (15-year longstop, s.14B). "cpa": the date the producer supplied the product (10-year longstop). | |
| capacityRegained | No | "pi": the date capacity was regained, if it has been. | |
| dependantKnowledge | No | Where died: a dependant's date of knowledge, if later (s.12(2)). | |
| incapableAtAccrual | No | "pi": whether the injured person lacked capacity to conduct proceedings on the date of the injury, including because of it: "yes", "no" or "" if not known. | |
| abuseSuedBeforeDeath | No | Where abuse and died: the victim brought the action before dying. |