Under Part 1 of the Limitation Act 1980 the general rule is that Court proceedings must be started within a specified period of the event giving rise to the dispute. For this purpose Court rules provide that proceedings are started when the Court issues a claim form at the request of the claimant (CPR rule 7.2 [1]). In this case the claim form was lodged just within the relevant time limit but the Court staff were then on strike.