Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
Publication
Florida Law Review
Volume
78
Abbreviation
Fla. L. Rev.
First Page
633
Abstract
When a claim is stale in one state but timely in another, a rational plaintiff will always file a lawsuit in the latter jurisdiction. To discourage plaintiffs from shopping around for the longest statute of limitations, thirty-six states have enacted laws known as borrowing statutes. A borrowing statute directs the state’s courts to apply the shorter statute of limitations of another state—typically the one where the cause of action arose—to bar the plaintiff’s claim.
The conventional wisdom holds that borrowing statutes merely restrain plaintiffs from filing lawsuits in out-of-the-way jurisdictions with no connection to the lawsuit. This Article reveals that, contrary to this conventional wisdom, borrowing statutes also frequently bar claims filed in (1) the plaintiff’s home jurisdiction, (2) the defendant’s home jurisdiction, or (3) a jurisdiction chosen in an exclusive forum selection clause. In none of these situations is the plaintiff filing suit in a far-flung jurisdiction to take advantage of a longer statute of limitations. In each instance, however, the borrowing statute operates to bar the plaintiff’s claim.
These outcomes are difficult to reconcile with the avowed purpose of the borrowing statute. A plaintiff can hardly be said to be forum shopping, for example, when the suit is brought in the jurisdiction in which both the plaintiff and the defendant reside. To address this incongruity, this Article advances three proposals. First, states could repeal their borrowing statutes and rely on the law of personal jurisdiction to discourage forum shopping. Second, states could repeal their borrowing statutes and reclassify statutes of limitations as substantive for choice-of-law purposes. Third, states could amend their borrowing statutes to state unequivocally that they do not apply in the three scenarios identified above. Any of these interventions would represent an improvement to the status quo.