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The scariest deadline is the one nobody wrote down. A limitation period does not send a reminder or file a motion. It just runs out, quietly, while the file sits under three other files on somebody's desk. This is a practical system for catching every one of them, from the first phone call to the monthly audit that finds the ones you missed.
None of this is fancy. It works whether you run a two-person shop or a firm of thirty. The point is not the tool you use. The point is that the same steps happen every single time, so nothing depends on someone remembering.
Why one date field is never enough
Most firms have a field somewhere for the limitation date. One field, one date. That is where the trouble starts, because a single date assumes a few things that are usually wrong.
It assumes you knew the date the day you opened the file. Often you do not. You have an estimate, or a discoverability question, or a defendant you have not identified yet. A single locked field cannot hold "we think it is around here, confirm after we get the records."
It also assumes one clock per matter. A single file can carry several: the basic two year limitation, a shorter notice period against a municipality, a contractual deadline, an appeal window down the road. Cram them into one field and the shortest one gets lost behind the longest.
Warn. A notice period against a public body can be far shorter than the limitation to sue. If your system only tracks the two year date, you can blow the notice while the file still looks perfectly on schedule.
So the first fix is conceptual, not technical. Treat a limitation as a record with a status, not a box with a number. Each deadline gets its own entry, its own owner, and a confidence level: estimated or confirmed.
Capturing the limitation clock the moment a matter opens
The best time to record a limitation is before you have done any legal work at all, during intake, while the client is still telling you what happened. Waiting until you "get to it" is how files sit for six weeks with an unrecorded clock ticking.
Build the limitation question straight into your intake routine so it is not optional. At the point where you open the matter, capture four things for every potential deadline:
- The trigger event. The accident, the breach, the termination, the date of discovery. Write the event, not just a number, so anyone can re-check the math later.
- The applicable period. Basic limitation, notice period, contractual term. Name it.
- The computed date. Trigger plus period, with a note on any discoverability or tolling assumption you made.
- Confidence. Estimated or confirmed, and what would move it to confirmed (usually a document you are still waiting on).
If your intake and your matter records live in one place, this is far easier, because the deadline is attached to the file from the first day rather than sitting on a sticky note. In A1 CMS the limitation entry rides along with the matter from intake forward, but the discipline matters more than the software: capture it at the door, or you will chase it forever.
Tip. When a date is only estimated, set the reminder to the earliest plausible date, not the latest. If it turns out you had more time, you lose nothing. If it turns out you had less, you are still safe.
Building a three-warning reminder ladder
One reminder is not enough. The person is out, the email gets buried, the day is a fire drill. Stack three reminders so a single miss is never fatal. Three is the right number: early enough to act on the first, close enough to feel real on the second, and a final alert that is impossible to ignore.
| Reminder | When it fires | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | 90 days out | Confirm the date, order missing records, decide whether to issue. |
| Act | 30 days out | Draft is underway. If it is not, escalate now. |
| Last call | 7 days out | Filed, or a documented decision not to proceed. No third option. |
Adjust the intervals to your practice. A short notice period might need reminders at 21, 10, and 3 days. The spacing is what counts: far enough apart that each one prompts a different action, not the same nagging ping three times in a week.
A missed deadline is almost never one failure. It is a reminder nobody saw, sent to a person who was away, on a file nobody else owned. The pattern behind most claims
Who owns the deadline when you are away
Every limitation needs a named owner, and every owner needs a named backup. Not "the litigation team." A person. When a reminder fires, one human is responsible for doing something and saying so.
The failure mode here is predictable. The owner is on holiday, in trial, or off sick during the exact window the reminder fires. If the reminder only goes to them, it dies in an unread inbox. So route the last two rungs to the backup as well, and have a standing rule that any deadline reminder gets acknowledged, in writing, within one business day. Silence is treated as an emergency, not as agreement.
This is the same muscle as a good conflict check: the value is not the one time it catches something dramatic, it is the hundred quiet times the process runs and nothing goes wrong. If you have written procedures, put the limitation ownership rule in them so a new hire inherits it on day one rather than learning it after a scare.
A monthly audit that catches the ones you missed
Reminders protect the deadlines you recorded. The audit protects you from the ones you never recorded at all. Once a month, someone who is not the file owner runs a simple pass.
- Every open matter has at least one limitation entry, or an explicit note that none applies and why.
- Every estimated date has a plan to confirm it, with a date attached.
- Nothing inside 120 days is sitting without an assigned owner.
- Any deadline that passed in the last month closed cleanly: filed, or a documented decision not to proceed.
Fold this into an existing rhythm rather than inventing a new meeting. A weekly review ritual already touches the active files; the monthly limitation audit covers everything, including the quiet files that have not moved in weeks. Quiet files are exactly where limitations hide.
Here is the honest takeaway. You will never track limitation dates perfectly, because intake is messy and clients remember things wrong and clocks move. What you can do is build a system that does not rely on any one person being sharp on any one day. Capture the clock at the door, treat each deadline as its own record, stack three warnings, name an owner and a backup, and audit the whole book once a month. Do that and a slipped date stops being a career-ending accident and becomes a caught mistake, every time. If you want to see how a matter and its deadlines can live in one place, our knowledge base walks through the setup.
