When Does Limitations Run in False Arrest?

The Supreme Court on November 6 will hear a case, Wallace v. City of Chicago, involving the question of when limitations begins to run on a false arrest claim. You can read an interesting perspective on it here. The case below from the Seventh Circuit held that limitations runs upon arrest, as that's when the injury occurs.

This is a tough one. Ordinary limitations argument seem to suggest the Seventh Circuit was correct: injury occurs, and the improperly arrested defendant surely knows that, on the day of arrest. But, for policy reasons, do we really want to encourage civil suits (Wallace was a 1983 action) to be filed while the criminal process is pending? I am no Fifth Amendment expert, but this sounds like a procedural morass, and a rule that encourages litigation.

Stay tuned.