Court of Appeal case provides clarity around litigation guardian duties

Anyone who is suing on behalf of someone who is under 18, I think, has to read this case,” said Stuart Zacharias, a partner at Lerners LLP and counsel for the appellant. “The law used to be, before the current Limitations Act, that until you became, the wording was ‘of full age,’ the limitation period just didn’t start to run. It didn’t matter what was going on. If you weren’t an adult, you could wait until you were 18 and then decide if you wanted to sue. The new act doesn’t say that and I think this just makes it very clear because we have a 10-year-old now whose claim was ruled to be statue-barred. I think that will actually come as news to a lot of people in the litigation bar. We’re still sort of of the mind of the old act.