British Columbia White Paper on Limitation Act Reform

The government of British Columbia has published a White Paper aimed at reforming the province's Limitation Act.

The Act defines deadlines people must respect to sue one another in the civil justice system.

The provincial government says it is time to rewrite the law for a number of reasons:

• It is out of step with similar statutes of other provinces
  
• The Uniform Law Conference of Canada put forward a model limitations statute as a suggested framework to develop a harmonized (consistent) approach to limitations law across the country
• Independent law reform bodies in B.C. have recommended reform in 1990 and again in 2002

Among the major recommendations in the White paper:

• moving from a variety of basic limitation periods to a single two-year basic limitation period for all civil claims
• eliminating the special six-year ultimate limitation period for negligence claims against doctors, hospitals and hospital employees. All lawsuits will be governed by a single ultimate limitation period of either 10 or 15 years

Consultations end November 15, 2010.