How long do I have to sue someone in Queensland? Limitation periods explained

Every legal claim carries a use-by date. Missed deadlines kill more potentially good cases than bad evidence ever will, so knowing your window matters before you do anything else¹.

In Queensland, the headline number is six years: under section 10 of the Limitation of Actions Act 1974² (Qld), most claims on simple contracts - and most tort claims - must be started within six years of the events giving rise to them. But plenty of important claims run on much shorter clocks, and some on longer ones.

The main periods at a glance

• Contract and debt: six years from breach or default.
• Ordinary negligence (say, property damage from careless work): six years.
• Personal injury: generally three years, with pre-court steps that effectively shorten the practical window further.
• Recovery of land: twelve years under the same Act’s land provisions.
• Defamation: much shorter still - get advice almost immediately if publication has damaged you.
• Family provision (contesting a will): practice expects eligible claimants to notify within six months of death and file within nine months, per the Succession Act 1981 (Qld) framework.
• Unfair dismissal: twenty-one days under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) - measured in days, not years.

Notice how differently those clocks are built: some run from a single date certain, others from discovery of harm, and employment claims expire before most people have even finished gathering documents. That variance is why “I’ll get around to it” is the most expensive sentence in civil law. A debt can wait two years without consequence while an injury claim can be lost in a long weekend of hesitation - and only the specific rules for your claim type settle which one you are holding.

Where no specific rule applies, assume time is short and ask early.

When does the clock start?

Usually from the date of the breach or loss: the missed payment, the botched renovation, the collision. Some situations differ:

• Deeds and specialty instruments carry longer periods than simple contracts.
• Fraud or deliberate concealment postpones time until you could reasonably discover the wrong.
• Latent defects in building work often turn on when damage was discoverable, not built.
• Disability (including infancy) suspends the running of time in defined circumstances.

Courts and tribunals count these dates strictly. A claim filed one day late is treated the same as one filed a decade late, and arguments about near-misses, postal delays or busy solicitors rarely move the line once it has been crossed. The discipline that wins is unglamorous: diarise, confirm receipt, and never assume a counterparty’s silence has extended anything.

Because commencement means filing, not sending letters, a demand letter written the week before expiry saves nothing.

A worked timeline

Consider an unpaid invoice for building work. Practical completion lands in March; payment was due in April. The six-year clock starts then. A phone call in July achieves nothing legally, a letter of demand in October changes nothing, and a promised part payment that never arrives helps nobody unless it is actually made. Fast-forward to the following March: the debtor acknowledges the debt in writing - the clock restarts from that acknowledgement. Without it, proceedings filed any time before next April remain open; one week later, the claim dies on limitation grounds regardless of how obvious the debt appears. Every commercial dispute deserves this kind of dated map drawn early, because memories smooth over exactly the dates that decide these cases.

What happens when time expires

Limitation operates as a defence. If a defendant raises it, the court will refuse relief even if the underlying claim was meritorious - which is why defendants plead it quickly. For debts, expiry generally bars the lawsuit but does not erase the obligation entirely, which is why old debts can still affect insolvency and why a fresh acknowledgement or part payment restarts the clock.

Never make a token payment on an old debt you intend to dispute - you may just hand the creditor six more years.

Two further points about expired claims surprise people. First, limitation is generally a defence that must be raised: a defendant who ignores the point and lets judgment slip through usually cannot invoke it afterwards on appeal. Second, courts retain narrow discretion to extend time in defined statutory circumstances, but those applications are exceptional, evidence-heavy and rarely succeed for ordinary money claims. Treat expiry as terminal until a lawyer says otherwise.

Smaller claims and faster forums

Not every dispute belongs in the Supreme Court. QCAT handles minor civil disputes up to $25,000, with its own lodgement expectations that track the limitation rules loosely but reward prompt action. Employment claims run on their own tight schedules through the Fair Work Commission, and consumer complaints to regulators work best while facts are fresh regardless of formal limits.

Our litigation team runs the limitation check first thing in every new matter, and debt management clients get recovery strategies built around enforceable windows rather than paper threats.

Practical steps

1. Write down the date everything went wrong, and any acknowledgements since.
2. Gather documents now - contracts, invoices, messages, photos.
3. Get advice well before any suspected deadline, not after.
4. Where a claim looks stale, ask about revival events such as payments or acknowledgements before conceding anything.
5. Calendar the deadline twice - once with your lawyer and once independently - and diarise pre-court steps like notices or mediation invitations, which consume weeks you may not have.

Finally, remember that starting early costs less across the board. Witnesses remember, records surface, and settlement leverage peaks well before limitation becomes the other side’s best argument. More reading: being sued - the process , our courts resources and other general FAQs .

Worried your window is closing? Contact Bell & Senior Lawyers for a free initial chat.

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