Tolling a Statute of Limitations — a time period during which a statute of limitations for bringing a specific
type of legal action is temporarily stopped from running. For example, many
states have statutes that toll the statute of limitations for an accrued
negligence claim belonging to a child while the child is still a minor. That
means that, for up to 18 years, the 2-year statute of limitations on negligence
claims, which otherwise would have long since run out, is stopped from running.
When the child reaches age 18, the 2-year statute of limitation period begins
to run at that point, and the plaintiff has until he or she reaches age 20 to
file suit.