The table below is a starting point for orientation, not an answer about your case. These statutes change every legislative session, several states have amended them more than once in the last five years, and the rule that actually governs you may be a delayed-discovery provision, a revival window, a government notice requirement, or a bankruptcy bar date rather than the general limitations period. Never conclude from a table that your claim is dead. Have the dates checked.
Five rules that decide your deadline
1. The general limitations period
Every state sets a baseline period for personal injury or sexual assault claims, commonly one to six years from the date of the injury. For an adult assaulted last year, this is usually the rule that governs. For someone abused as a child forty years ago, it is almost never the rule that matters.
2. Minority tolling
The clock does not run while a claimant is a minor. In nearly every state the period begins at 18. On its own this rarely helps historical claims, because a three-year period starting at 18 expires at 21, long before most survivors are ready.
3. Age-based caps for childhood claims
Many states now set a specific age by which a childhood abuse claim must be brought: age 40, age 53, age 55. California uses 40. These caps recognize that disclosure usually comes decades late, and that a deadline measured from the abuse itself would close before most survivors are ready to use it.
4. Delayed discovery
The clock starts when the survivor reasonably discovered, or should have discovered, that their psychological injury was caused by the abuse, not when the abuse occurred. Where this applies it is frequently the most important rule in the case, because that discovery may have happened last year even if the abuse happened in 1974.
5. Revival windows
A legislature temporarily reopens claims that had already expired, usually for one to three years. Every mass institutional case of the last decade, from Los Angeles County to the dioceses to the Boy Scouts filings, traces to one of these laws. They close on schedule and generally do not reopen.
Government notice requirements. If the defendant is a state, county, school district, or other public entity, some states require an administrative notice within 90 to 180 days before you may sue at all. Several states exempt childhood sexual abuse claims, and California removed the requirement entirely through AB 218, but many do not.
Bankruptcy bar dates. If the institution files Chapter 11, the bankruptcy court sets a single deadline that supersedes your state’s statute of limitations. Missing it generally extinguishes the claim permanently. See our explanation of how this works.
Deadlines by state
Filter the table to find your state. “Childhood claims” refers to civil claims for sexual abuse suffered while under 18; “adult claims” to sexual assault suffered as an adult. Where a state has eliminated the deadline for childhood claims, that applies to claims not already expired when the law took effect unless the state also enacted a revival window.
| State | Childhood claims | Adult claims | Revival window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Age 19 + discovery rule | 2 years | None enacted |
| Alaska | No deadline for most childhood claims | 2 years | Effectively via elimination |
| Arizona | Age 30 | 2 years | Closed (2019–2020) |
| Arkansas | Age 55 | 3 years | Closed |
| California | Age 40 or 5 yrs from discovery; no limit for abuse on/after 1 Jan 2024 | 10 years, or 3 from discovery | Closed (AB 218, 2020–2022) |
| Colorado | Age 24 + discovery | 6 years | Enacted 2021; partially struck down |
| Connecticut | Age 51 | 3 years | None currently open |
| Delaware | No deadline for childhood claims | 2 years | Closed (2007–2009) |
| District of Columbia | Age 40 or 5 yrs from discovery | 5 years | Closed (2019–2021) |
| Florida | No deadline where victim was under 16 | 4 years (7 for some offenses) | None enacted |
| Georgia | Age 23 + discovery | 2 years | Closed (2015–2017) |
| Hawaii | Age 26 or 3 yrs from discovery | 2 years | Closed (multiple windows) |
| Idaho | Age 23 | 2 years | None enacted |
| Illinois | No deadline for childhood claims | 2 years | Effectively via elimination |
| Indiana | Age 25 + discovery | 2 years | None enacted |
| Iowa | Age 22 or 4 yrs from discovery | 2 years | None enacted |
| Kansas | Age 21 or 3 yrs from discovery | 2 years | None enacted |
| Kentucky | Age 28 or 10 yrs from discovery | 5 years | None enacted |
| Louisiana | No deadline for childhood claims | 1 year | Enacted; contested in state courts |
| Maine | No deadline for childhood claims | 6 years | Open under 2021 law |
| Maryland | No deadline (Child Victims Act 2023) | 3 years | Revival, so claims may be filed regardless of age |
| Massachusetts | Age 53 or 7 yrs from discovery | 3 years | None enacted |
| Michigan | Age 28 or 3 yrs from discovery | 3 years | Closed (narrow, 2018) |
| Minnesota | No deadline for childhood claims | 6 years | Closed (2013–2016) |
| Mississippi | Age 21 | 3 years | None enacted |
| Missouri | Age 31 or 3 yrs from discovery | 5 years | None enacted |
| Montana | Age 27 or 3 yrs from discovery | 3 years | Closed (2019–2020) |
| Nebraska | Age 22 | 4 years | None enacted |
| Nevada | Age 38 | 2 years | None currently open |
| New Hampshire | Age 30 or 3 yrs from discovery | 3 years | None enacted |
| New Jersey | Age 55 or 7 yrs from discovery | 7 years from discovery | Closed (2019–2021) |
| New Mexico | Age 24 or 3 yrs from discovery | 3 years | None enacted |
| New York | Age 55 (Child Victims Act) | Generally 3 years | Both closed (CVA 2019–21; ASA 2022–23) |
| North Carolina | Age 28 | 3 years | Closed (SAFE Child Act, 2020–21) |
| North Dakota | Age 28 or 10 yrs from discovery | 6 years | None enacted |
| Ohio | Age 30 | 2 years | None enacted |
| Oklahoma | Age 45 | 2 years | Closed |
| Oregon | Age 40 or 5 yrs from discovery | 2 years | None enacted |
| Pennsylvania | Age 55 | 2 years | Proposed repeatedly; not enacted |
| Rhode Island | Age 53 | 3 years | Open for some claims (2019 law) |
| South Carolina | Age 21 or 3 yrs from discovery | 3 years | None enacted |
| South Dakota | Age 40 (with limits on entity claims) | 3 years | None enacted |
| Tennessee | Age 19 + discovery | 1 year | None enacted |
| Texas | Age 48 | 5 years | None enacted |
| Utah | No deadline for childhood claims | 4 years | Enacted; partially limited by court ruling |
| Vermont | No deadline for childhood claims | 6 years | Revival available under 2019 law |
| Virginia | Age 38 or 20 yrs from discovery | 2 years | None enacted |
| Washington | Age 21 or 3 yrs from discovery | 3 years | Under active legislative consideration |
| West Virginia | Age 22 or 4 yrs from discovery | 2 years | None enacted |
| Wisconsin | Age 35 | 3 years | None enacted |
| Wyoming | Age 26 or 3 yrs from discovery | 4 years | None enacted |
This table summarizes general civil deadlines and is current to the best of our knowledge as of August 2026. It omits state-specific exceptions, differing rules for claims against entities versus individuals, government notice requirements, and pending legislation, any of which may change the answer in your case. It is not legal advice.
What to do with this
- Find your state above and note the childhood or adult row that applies.
- Identify the defendant type. A public entity may add a notice requirement; an institution in financial distress may add a bar date.
- Work out your discovery date, not just the abuse date. When did you first connect what happened to the effects it had on you? That date may be recent, and it may be the one that governs.
- Get it confirmed. A review takes one conversation and costs nothing. Being wrong in the pessimistic direction is what causes people to lose live claims.
Legislatures change these deadlines between our reviews, and a window that was open when this page was last checked may have closed since. CHILD USA maintains a running tracker of statute of limitations reform by state, which is the place to look for anything enacted after the date in the byline above.
Questions we are asked most
You generally cannot know from a table, and that is not a hedge. It is the honest answer. Your deadline depends on the date of the abuse, your age at the time, when you reasonably connected your psychological injury to it, whether the defendant is a government entity, whether a revival window applies, and whether the state's law changed between then and now. Two people with nearly identical experiences in the same state can have different deadlines. Have your specific dates reviewed.
A revival window is a law that temporarily reopens claims that had already expired. For a defined period, often one to three years, survivors may file regardless of how old the claim is. Every mass institutional abuse case of the last decade traces to one of these laws. They are deliberately time-limited, which means the answer to 'is my window open' changes, and once a window closes it usually does not reopen.
It starts the clock not when the abuse happened but when you reasonably discovered, or should have discovered, that your psychological injury was caused by the abuse. Survivors frequently do not make that connection for decades, and the rule exists to account for that. Where it applies, it can make a claim timely that would otherwise be forty years too late.
It pauses the limitations clock while a claimant is a minor, so the period does not begin running until they turn 18. Nearly every state has some form of it. On its own it is usually not enough for historical abuse claims, because the resulting deadline still lands in the claimant's early twenties, which is why states added age-based caps such as 'until age 40' and delayed discovery rules on top of it.
Frequently yes, and they are usually harsher. Government defendants may be protected by sovereign immunity, damages caps, and notice-of-claim requirements as short as 90 to 180 days. Several states have carved childhood sexual abuse claims out of those requirements. California's AB 218 removed the government claim presentation requirement entirely, which is exactly why the Los Angeles County claims were viable. Whether your state has done the same is a threshold question.
Yes, and this is the most dangerous timing trap in this area. When an institution files Chapter 11, the bankruptcy court sets a bar date. Claims not filed by that date are generally extinguished permanently, regardless of what your state's statute of limitations allows. A bar date can be months away when your state deadline is years away. If the institution involved in your case is in financial distress, that changes your timeline entirely.
Generally no. A police report does not pause a civil limitations period, and a criminal prosecution running in parallel does not extend your civil deadline. People lose civil claims waiting for a criminal case to finish. If both are possible, they usually need to be managed together rather than in sequence.
- State civil statutes of limitations for sexual abuse and personal injury claims, as amended through 2026.
- California AB 218 (2019) and AB 452 (2023); New York Child Victims Act (CPLR § 214-g) and Adult Survivors Act (CPLR § 214-j); Maryland Child Victims Act (2023); New Jersey S477 (2019); North Carolina SAFE Child Act (2019).
- State tort claims acts and notice-of-claim provisions applicable to public-entity defendants.
- CHILD USA statute of limitations tracking, for legislative changes by state.
