Final answer:
The statute of limitations can prevent lawsuits from proceeding if expired, as seen in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act addressed the challenge of late discovery of discrimination by resetting the statute of limitations with each discriminatory paycheck.
Step-by-step explanation:
When the statute of limitations has expired, the Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) may contain exceptions or tolling provisions that can impact the ability to bring forth a lawsuit. However, if the statute has definitely expired without exceptions, then a defendant can use the expiration as a defense to prevent the lawsuit from proceeding. This was seen in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., where the plaintiff, Lilly Ledbetter, was unable to sue for pay discrimination because she did not discover the wage disparity until after the statute of limitations had passed. This highlighted the challenges in cases where the discrimination is not immediately apparent. Consequently, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was enacted to address this issue by redefining what constitutes a discriminatory act to include each instance of disparate pay, effectively resetting the statute of limitations with each discriminatory paycheck.