Delaware Relation Back Doctrine

IncSmart Delaware (Small Business and Startups) - Delaware Business Court.  Plaintiffs right to amend a pleading without incurring the bar of the statute of limitations. Under federal civil procedure, an amended pleading may relate back, for purposes of the statute of limitations, to the time when the original pleading was filed.  The Delaware Court of Chancery is widely recognized as the nation's preeminent forum for the determination of disputes involving the internal affairs of the thousands upon thousands of Delaware corporations and other business entities through which a vast amount of the world's commercial affairs is conducted. Its unique competence in and exposure to issues of business law are unmatched.

There are restrictions to the Relate Back Doctrine. Besides the restrictions that include the "same general set of facts" standard, the decisions typically state the current relation-back doctrine as requiring that the amended complaint must (1) use of the "same general set of facts," (2) involve the "same accident and same injuries," and (3) refer to the "same offending instrumentality," as the original complaint. The most important of these factors is whether the defendant will be unfairly surprised and therefore unduly prejudiced by the allegations in the proposed amendment. More specifically, during pretrial discovery, the defendant was already made aware of, and has already gathered facts to respond to the new allegations in the proposed amendment. Did the original complaint misled, and thereby prejudiced the defendant?