What is a statute of limitations?

Answer 1

ANSWER: SoL is, in a nutshell, the time allowed for legal action to "validly" occur. Such as debts. The SoL for debts gives creditors a timeframe in which they MUST seek legal remedy with the court system's assistance. A creditor can, of course, still file a suit for money owed, but SoL is a "permissible defense" for the defendant/debtor to that lawsuit, if the SoL is expired. Essentially, once the SoL has expired AND the defendant to the action appears in court with the defense of SoL, the court will tell the plaintiff (loosely translated) "Tough noogies. You should have wrung this debtor within the past X years. Your time for remedy is up." It's sort of based on "self-help" for plaintiffs. If the debt/settlement was REALLY important to them, they should have taken action sooner.

Answer 2

It's a law that sets the time in which a lawsuit can be filed or criminal charges can be filed. For example, if someone hurts you by hitting you with a car, you may have one year to file a lawsuit. If you wait longer than that, you cannot sue. If you commit a crime, the police have a certain amount of time to arrest you, and if they don't arrest you within that time frame, they can never arrest you. The amount of time depends on what you are suing about and/or what the crime is, and the times also vary from state to state. There are also certain situations in which the time can be extended.