Day on Torts
The Tennessee Supreme Court has extended the deadlines for filing suit (both statutes of limitations and statutes of repose) because of the coronavirus and Covid-19.
By Court Order filed March 25, 2020, the Court said this:
Statutes of limitations and statutes of repose that would otherwise expire during the period from Friday, March 13, 2020, through Tuesday, May 5, 2020, are hereby extended through
Wednesday, May 6, 2020. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-1-116 (2017). Deadlines, statutes
of limitations, and statutes of repose that are not set to expire during the period from
Friday, March 13, 2020, through Tuesday, May 5, 2020, are not extended or tolled by this
order.
What that means is this: if the statute of limitations or statute of repose in your case would have ordinarily expired from March 13, 2020 until May 5,2020 you may now file suit as late as May 6, 2020 and still have the complaint deemed as timely filed for purposes of the statute of limitations and the statute of repose. However, if you have a case in which the statute of limitations or the statute of repose would expire on May 6 or thereafter, the ordinary deadline applicable to your case is NOT extended by the Order.
Permit me to add this: this probably applies to cases that are subject to the discovery rule, but given the uncertainty over what the discovery rule actually means these days extreme caution is urged.