← Back to calculator

Terms of Use

Last updated: 22 March 2026

About this site

delimitation.co.uk (this site) is a personal project of Anthony Searle, a barrister in independent practice. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Serjeants’ Inn Chambers or any other organisation.

This site provides a calculator for estimating limitation periods under the Limitation Act 1980 for personal injury, clinical negligence, and fatal accident claims in England and Wales. It is made available free of charge, without warranty, and without any assumption of responsibility for the accuracy of its output.

This site is a companion tool to disinterest.co.uk, a pre-judgment interest calculator. The two sites are independent projects and these terms apply only to this site.

Intended users

This site is designed for use by qualified legal practitioners (solicitors, barristers, legal executives, and other regulated legal professionals) acting in the course of their professional practice. It is not designed for, and is not directed at, members of the public, litigants in person, or any person acting outside the course of a legal practice.

By using this site, you warrant that you are a qualified legal practitioner acting in a professional capacity, or that you are otherwise competent to independently verify the output of the calculator before acting on it.

If you are not a qualified legal practitioner, you use this site entirely at your own risk and you acknowledge that the tool has not been designed with your needs in mind.

Acceptance of these terms

Your use of this site is subject to these terms of use. By accessing or using the calculator, you confirm that you accept these terms and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use this site.

Where the site requires you to confirm your acceptance of these terms before using the calculator (for example, by ticking a checkbox or clicking a button), your confirmation constitutes your express agreement to all of these terms, including in particular the provisions headed Basis of use, No guarantee of accuracy, and Limitation of liability. You acknowledge that you have had the opportunity to read these terms in full before confirming your acceptance.

These terms constitute the conditions of a licence granted to you to use this site. They do not create a contract for the supply of services.

No legal advice

This site is a calculation tool only. Nothing on this site constitutes legal advice, and no legal advice is given or intended to be given through the use of the calculator.

The output of the calculator is a preliminary estimate only. It is not a definitive statement of the applicable limitation period for any particular claim. The correct limitation period for any given claim will depend on the specific facts, the applicable law, and the exercise of judicial discretion, none of which this tool can assess.

Basis of use

As the basis on which this site is made available and on which you use it, you acknowledge and agree that:

  1. No advice is given. The calculator provides automated date calculations based on the inputs you supply. It does not advise on the applicable limitation period for any particular claim.
  2. No duty of care is assumed. Anthony Searle does not assume any responsibility, and no responsibility is accepted, for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any calculation produced by this site, whether to you or to any other person.
  3. Independent verification required. The output of the calculator is not a substitute for, and does not replace the need for, your own independent legal assessment of the applicable limitation period. You are solely responsible for verifying any calculation before acting on it, whether in legal proceedings or otherwise.
  4. The output is preliminary only.The calculator’s output is subject to the qualifications, limitations, and disclaimers displayed within the tool alongside any calculation result, all of which form part of these terms.

These acknowledgments define the basis on which this site is made available and on which you use it. They describe the nature of the service offered and the terms on which it is provided. They are not exclusions or limitations of liability for responsibilities that have otherwise been assumed; they reflect the fact that no such responsibilities have been assumed and no duty of care has arisen.

No guarantee of accuracy

Although reasonable care has been taken in developing this calculator, no representation, warranty, or guarantee is given that the calculations produced are accurate, complete, or current.

What the calculator does

The calculator models limitation periods under the following provisions of the Limitation Act 1980:

  • Section 11 (standard period for personal injury and clinical negligence claims).
  • Section 11(5) (estate claims following death — Fatal Accidents Act 1976).
  • Section 12(1) and 12(2) (dependants’ claims under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976), including the section 12(1) threshold bar where the deceased’s own limitation had expired before death.
  • Section 14 (date of knowledge).
  • Section 28 (extension for minority and persons under a disability).
  • Standstill agreements (contractual extensions of the limitation period).

What the calculator does not do

The calculator does not account for, and its output must not be relied upon in respect of, the following matters (among others):

  • Section 33 discretion.The court’s discretionary power under section 33 of the Limitation Act 1980 to disapply the primary limitation period. This is a judicial decision that cannot be predicted by a calculator and depends on the facts of each case.
  • Section 32 (fraud, concealment, and mistake). The postponement of the limitation period in cases of deliberate concealment, fraud, or mistake under section 32 of the Limitation Act 1980.
  • Section 35 (new claims in pending actions). The rules governing the addition of new claims or parties after the expiry of the limitation period.
  • Contribution claims. Limitation periods for contribution claims under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 and the Limitation Act 1980, section 10.
  • Foreign limitation periods. Any limitation period governed by foreign law, including under the Foreign Limitation Periods Act 1984.
  • Scottish and Northern Irish claims. The calculator applies only to claims governed by the law of England and Wales. It does not model limitation periods under the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 or the Limitation (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.
  • Claims outside the Limitation Act 1980. Any claim to which the Limitation Act 1980 does not apply, or to which a different statutory limitation regime applies.
  • The “brought” rule and filing practicalities.A claim is “brought” for limitation purposes when the claim form is received by the court office, not when it is issued or served. The calculator does not account for court filing times, system outages, postal delays, or the practical steps required to ensure a claim form is received before the limitation period expires. The disclaimers displayed alongside calculation results address this further.
  • Judicial and public holidays. While the calculator accounts for standard bank holidays in England and Wales, it may not reflect changes to the bank holiday schedule that have not yet been incorporated into the tool.
  • User input errors. The calculator produces output based on the dates and options you select. If you enter incorrect dates or select incorrect options, the output will be incorrect. The calculator does not verify your inputs.

This list is not exhaustive. The calculator is a tool to assist with, not to replace, your own assessment of the applicable limitation period.

In-app disclaimers

The calculator displays contextual disclaimers alongside its output, addressing specific qualifications relevant to the calculation performed. Those disclaimers form part of these terms and are incorporated by reference. You are deemed to have read and accepted them when you use the calculator.

Limitation of liability

Liability that cannot be excluded

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under the law of England and Wales.

If you are a legal practitioner or business user

If you are using this site in the course of a legal practice, business, trade, craft, or profession:

  1. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Anthony Searle excludes all liability (whether in contract, tort, negligence, negligent misstatement, breach of statutory duty, or otherwise) arising out of or in connection with your use of this site, your use of the calculator, or your reliance on any calculation, output, or information provided by it.
  2. Without limiting the generality of paragraph (a), Anthony Searle shall not be liable for any loss of profit, loss of business, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill, wasted expenditure, or any indirect, consequential, or special loss, howsoever arising.
  3. Without limiting the generality of paragraph (a), Anthony Searle shall not be liable for any loss arising from a missed limitation deadline, the issue or non-issue of proceedings, or any decision taken or not taken in reliance on the output of the calculator.
  4. All implied conditions, warranties, representations, and other terms that might otherwise apply to this site or its output, whether by statute, common law, or otherwise, are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

If you are a consumer

If you are using this site for purposes wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft, or profession, please note that this site is not designed for you (see Intended users above). If you choose to use it:

  1. Anthony Searle does not exclude or limit liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so.
  2. You agree that this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal advice. You should obtain independent legal advice before taking or refraining from any action on the basis of the output of the calculator.
  3. To the extent permitted by law, Anthony Searle excludes all liability arising out of or in connection with your use of this site or your reliance on any calculation or information provided by it. In particular, Anthony Searle shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from a missed limitation deadline or any decision taken or not taken in reliance on the output of the calculator.
  4. Anthony Searle is not liable to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

Intellectual property

The original code, design, calculation logic, and content of this site are the copyright of Anthony Searle. All rights reserved.

This site is built using open-source software libraries, which are used under their respective licences. Those libraries remain the intellectual property of their respective authors.

You may use the calculator for your own professional or personal purposes. You may not reproduce, redistribute, or republish this site or any substantial part of it without prior written permission.

No text or data mining

You may not conduct, facilitate, authorise, or permit any text or data mining, web scraping, or similar automated data extraction in relation to this site, including for the purpose of developing, training, fine-tuning, or validating artificial intelligence systems or models. This does not apply to indexing by publicly available search engines.

This constitutes an express reservation of rights for the purposes of Article 4(3) of the Digital Copyright Directive ((EU) 2019/790) and section 29A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Site availability

This site is provided free of charge. No guarantee is given that the site, or any content on it, will always be available or uninterrupted. Anthony Searle may suspend, withdraw, or restrict the availability of all or any part of this site at any time and for any reason, including to correct errors in the calculator, without notice and without liability.

Security

You are responsible for configuring your own information technology, computer programs, and platform to access this site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse this site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs, or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to this site or any server, computer, or database connected to it.

Analytics

This site uses Vercel Web Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights to collect anonymous, aggregated usage data (page views, referrers, device types, and Core Web Vitals performance metrics). This data does not identify you personally and no cookies are used for this purpose.

This site does not collect or store personal data. All calculations are performed entirely in your browser. No case data or input data is transmitted to or stored on any server.

Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated from time to time. The date of the most recent revision is shown at the top of this page. Your continued use of this site after any changes constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Third-party links

Where this site contains links to other sites or resources provided by third parties, those links are provided for your information only. Anthony Searle has no control over the contents of those sites and accepts no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Third party rights

A person who is not a party to these terms has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of these terms.

Severability

If any provision of these terms (or any part of a provision) is found by any court or authority of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision or part shall, to the extent required, be deemed not to form part of these terms, and the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not be affected.

Governing law

These terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter (including non-contractual disputes or claims), are governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

Contact

If you have any questions about these terms, you may contact Anthony Searle via his professional profile.