Equitable Tolling eh-qui-TAH-bul TOH-ling Equitable tolling is a legal principle that allows a court to extend the deadline for filing a lawsuit if certain fairness considerations warrant it. Even if a statute of limitations has technically expired, a court may apply equitable tolling if the plaintiff can show they were prevented from filing their lawsuit due to circumstances beyond their control, such as fraud or mistake by the defendant. The court applied equitable tolling to allow the plaintiff to file their lawsuit even though they had missed the statute of limitations deadline. In Hernandez v. City of New York (2019), the court applied equitable tolling because the plaintiff was unaware of the cause of their injury until after the deadline had passed. ← Back to BrowseNext Term →