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A Statue of Repose cuts off certain legal rights if not acted on by a certain deadline. Statutes of Repose and Statutes of Limitations are distinct but very similar. The SOL limits timelines for an injured party. However the SOR focuses on protecting the alleged injuring party from long term liability. Therefore, they may be based on elapsed time from an event other than the injury The United States Supreme Court has even noted that SOL and SOR are often mistaken for the same thing, even by Congress in the enactment of federal statutes.

Although statutes of limitation and statutes of repose are different, sometimes the two concepts are confused, sometimes even by legislatures in their enactment of statutes. In a U.S. court case that reached the nation’s Supreme Court, the court took note of the failure of Congress to consistently observe the distinction when drafting laws:

While the term “statute of limitations” has acquired a precise meaning, distinct from “statute of repose,” and while that is its primary meaning, it must be acknowledged that the term “statute of limitations” is sometimes used in a less formal way. In that sense, it can refer to any provision restricting the time in which a plaintiff must bring suit. … Congress has used the term “statute of limitations” when enacting statutes of repose. See, e.g., 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6(h)(1)(B)(iii)(I)(aa) (2012 ed.) (creating a statute of repose and placing it in a provision entitled “Statute of limitations”); 42 U.S.C. § 2278 (same). And petitioner does not point out an example in which Congress has used the term “statute of repose.” So the Court must proceed to examine other evidence of the meaning of the term “statute of limitations” as it is used in § 9658.