Checked 9 October 2026, Defamation Act 2009 as amended.
A defamation action must be brought within 1 year of publication. A court can extend that to 2 years, but only where the interests of justice require it. Enter the date and see your dates, and the shorter windows for a newspaper or broadcast complaint.
Your dates
When was the statement first published?
For something online, the date it could first be viewed. For something said out loud, the day it was said. The clock runs from that day, not from when you found out.
Was it repeated?
A share, a re-post, a second article. Tick “by someone else” when a different person or publisher repeated it.
The dates are the limitation dates for issuing proceedings. The tool does not assess whether a statement is defamatory, whether a defence would succeed, or whether a court would grant the extension.