How to plead the statute of limitations: statement of defence and evidence

When this applies

This guide is for anyone who has re­ceived a claim about an event that took place long ago: an unpaid loan, a con­trac­tu­al debt, a coun­ter­par­ty’s demand, an old unpaid service bill, or a claim for penal­ties for past periods.

For a de­fen­dant in Lviv or Lviv Oblast, the first risk is not the old debt itself but staying silent during the pro­ceed­ings. The court is not re­quired to apply the statute of lim­i­ta­tions unless a party raises it. If you fail to present your po­si­tion on time, the case may be decided based on the claimant’s ma­te­ri­als.

If the first warning was an account arrest, first iden­ti­fy the en­force­ment doc­u­ment and pro­ceed­ings. Lim­i­ta­tion may matter to the debt dispute, but it must be raised in the correct pro­ce­dur­al context.

Which time limit or procedure applies

The general lim­i­ta­tion period is three years. The Civil Code also pro­vides special periods, rules for ex­tend­ing lim­i­ta­tion, sus­pen­sion and in­ter­rup­tion, as well as claims that are not subject to lim­i­ta­tion. There­fore, saying “the con­tract is more than three years old” is not always enough.

The period usually starts on the day a person learned or could have learned that their right had been in­fringed. For a con­tract with a spe­cif­ic payment or re­pay­ment date, check the due date. For re­cur­ring pay­ments, each period may need to be as­sessed sep­a­rate­ly.

An ap­pli­ca­tion to apply the statute of lim­i­ta­tions must be made before the de­ci­sion is issued. The most prac­ti­cal format is a state­ment of defence: the de­fen­dant sets out the ob­jec­tions, at­tach­es ev­i­dence, and asks the court to dismiss the rel­e­vant claim because the lim­i­ta­tion period has expired.

Steps to take

First, check the order opening pro­ceed­ings. It states the dead­line for filing a state­ment of defence and how doc­u­ments must be served on the other par­tic­i­pants. Confirm when you re­ceived the order and claim with postal records, the elec­tron­ic cabinet, or other proof of service.

Next, break down the claimant’s demands. List the prin­ci­pal debt, penalty, in­ter­est, in­fla­tion losses, ad­di­tion­al ex­pens­es, and accrual periods sep­a­rate­ly. For each demand, note the pos­si­ble start date and the doc­u­ment that sup­ports it.

Then check whether any­thing hap­pened that the claimant may rely on against your lim­i­ta­tion defence. This could be a partial payment, a signed rec­on­cil­i­a­tion state­ment, a letter asking to defer the debt, an earlier claim, or cir­cum­stances sus­pend­ing the period. If such events do not affect your claim, explain why.

In your state­ment of defence or a sep­a­rate ap­pli­ca­tion, ex­press­ly ask the court to apply the con­se­quences of expiry. Attach your cal­cu­la­tion, copies of ev­i­dence, and proof that the doc­u­ments were sent to the claimant. Without this, the court may lack a pro­ce­dur­al basis to con­sid­er lim­i­ta­tion as a defence.

What to check before filing

Before filing, check the court, case number, parties, elec­tron­ic cabinet, and method for sending doc­u­ments. If you are a sole pro­pri­etor or legal entity, check whether you are re­quired to use an elec­tron­ic cabinet, since a pro­ce­dur­al error can weaken your po­si­tion.

Also make sure your ap­pli­ca­tion covers only those demands for which the period has ac­tu­al­ly expired. For example, under one con­tract, some pay­ments may still fall within the period while others may be outside it. If you do not sep­a­rate them, it may be harder for the court to accept your ar­gu­ment.

For Lviv cases in­volv­ing com­mer­cial or busi­ness matters, sep­a­rate­ly review rec­on­cil­i­a­tion state­ments, email cor­re­spon­dence, and bank state­ments. These doc­u­ments often become central to whether the period was in­ter­rupt­ed.

When to consult a lawyer

Con­sid­er con­sult­ing a lawyer if the claim in­volves a sub­stan­tial amount, spans several periods, in­cludes penal­ties, or the claimant alleges that you ac­knowl­edged the debt. In these sit­u­a­tions, it is im­por­tant to build a pro­ce­dur­al po­si­tion for each demand, rather than simply men­tion­ing lim­i­ta­tion.

Advice on cases in Lviv and the region can help you quickly de­ter­mine whether there is a real lim­i­ta­tion ar­gu­ment, the dead­line for your state­ment of defence, which doc­u­ments to attach, and whether a sep­a­rate motion should ac­com­pa­ny the defence.