I keep hearing that a person who has been incarcerated for, say, longer than 7 years is so institutionalized that he is considered to be at least somewhat mentally incapacitated or disabled, and that this entitles him or her to qualify, say, for this status when involved in a lawsuit, etc., or entitles him or her to at least some (temporary?) benefits just on the sole fact that he or she is disabled…at least perhaps temporarily. Point is that someone I know is involved in a lawsuit. Due to his possible disability mentally he could be exempt from certain strict court rules (such as statutes of limitations). Does anybody out there know anything about this? Thanks.
(Nota bene: reported for change of forum.)
Moving to General Questions.
I would be absolutely astounded if this was true.
It seems there would be a public outcry from conservatives (and a few liberals as well) if an ex-con was seen as receiving special rights or benefits because of their criminal past…
Even if true, why would becoming mentally disabled affect the statute of limitations of all things?
I agree that people who go through a long prison sentence often become “institutionalized”. But I’ve never seen it classified as a bona fide mental condition. It would be like somebody claiming that they’ve officially been declared a couch potato.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
This is the only part I can address:
*Tolling the Statute
Statutes of limitations are designed to aid defendants. A plaintiff, however, can prevent the dismissal of his action for untimeliness by seeking to toll the statute. When the statute is tolled, the running of the time period is suspended until some event specified by law takes place. Tolling provisions benefit a plaintiff by extending the time within which he is permitted to bring suit.
Various events or circumstances will toll a statute of limitations. It is tolled when one of the parties is under a legal disability — the lack of legal capacity to do an act — at the time the cause of action accrues. A child or a person with a mental illness is regarded as being incapable of initiating a legal action on her own behalf. Therefore, the time limit will be tolled until some fixed time after the disability has been removed. For example, once a child reaches the age of majority, the counting of time will be resumed. A personal disability that postpones the operation of the statute against an individual may be asserted only by that individual. If a party is under more than one disability, the statute of limitations does not begin to run until all the disabilities are removed. Once the statute begins to run, it will not be suspended by the subsequent disability of any of the parties unless specified by statute.*
Excerpted from: Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions
Edited to add: Note that this applies when filing (civil) lawsuits, and is not used when defending against criminal charges.