Statute of Repose

A statute of repose is a hard deadline that extinguishes a plaintiff's right to bring a claim after a fixed period measured from a specific event—typically the date of manufacture, sale, or completion of a product or construction—regardless of when the injury was discovered or whether the plaintiff was even aware of the harm. Unlike a statute of limitations, a statute of repose cannot be tolled by discovery rules, fraudulent concealment, or minority status in most jurisdictions, making it a critical threshold issue in mass tort dockets involving older products, medical devices, or pharmaceuticals. Plaintiff firms and their intake teams must identify the applicable repose period in each target jurisdiction early in campaign planning, as claimants whose exposure dates fall outside the repose window may be categorically ineligible regardless of the strength of their underlying injury claim.