Statutes of limitation ensure that justice is served fairly and efficiently. These rules provide deadlines for legal action, recognizing that justice delayed is justice denied. The longer you wait to engage in any legal action, the higher the chance of undesirable results. Some of these undesirable results include: Significant evidence problems Judicial inefficiency Lowering of legal standards Regarding evidence issues, time has a deleterious effect on evidence, making proof problematic when significant amounts of time have lapsed since a particular incident. For example, if you want to sue someone for a personal injury that occurred in 1997, you would likely have significant evidence of recovery problems. More importantly, the evidence would be suspect, especially witness testimony, because it is old and stale. In reference to judicial inefficiency, the law attempts to maintain an efficient judiciary that can work through caseloads. Imagine what would happen without a statute of limitations for personal injury cases. The courts would be flooded with an impossible number of cases.