Alabama at a glance
Rules, not your dateChild sexual abuse: the civil deadline
Until age 25 (6 years after the age of majority, which is 19 in Alabama) for an injury arising from a listed sex offense. The rule is in Ala. Code § 6-2-8(b).
That is the deadline for a civil lawsuit, a claim for money damages. A criminal prosecution runs on a separate clock set by the state’s criminal code, and a report to police can be made whether or not a civil claim is still open. How the two differ.
Adult sexual assault: the civil deadline
6 years for assault and battery claims; 2 years for negligence claims, including claims against an employer for an employee's conduct. The rule is in Ala. Code §§ 6-2-34(1), 6-2-38(l), 6-2-38(n).
Revival and lookback windows
Alabama has not enacted a window that revives sexual abuse claims whose deadline had already passed.
A revival window, sometimes called a lookback window, lets survivors file claims that had already expired, for a set period. Closed windows stay listed here with their dates, because a claim filed while one was open may still be moving through the courts. Every state’s window, side by side.
Claims against public entities
Claims against a city: present to the clerk within 6 months of accrual. Claims against a county: present within 12 months (a minor has 12 months after the disability ends). No exemption for childhood sexual abuse appears in either text. See Ala. Code §§ 11-47-23, 11-12-8, 6-5-20.
A claim against a public body often needs a written notice filed with that body first, and the notice period can be far shorter than the deadline for the lawsuit itself.
Active lawsuits and institutions in Alabama
- Roblox litigation: Attorney general action against Roblox, settled
The deadlines described here are general rules, and most of them have exceptions. The date that governs a particular claim turns on the state, the person’s age when the abuse happened, when they connected it to the harm it caused, and who the defendant is. A claim against a public agency or a public school can carry a written notice requirement that runs out long before the ordinary deadline.
Nothing on this page can tell you your own date. A lawyer who looks at your facts can, and there is no charge to ask.
- Ala. Code § 6-2-8(b) (childhood claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- Ala. Code §§ 6-2-34(1), 6-2-38(l), 6-2-38(n) (adult claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- Ala. Code §§ 11-47-23, 11-12-8, 6-5-20 (notice to public entities). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- CHILD USA, statute of limitations research (used as a cross-check, not as the source of any rule above).
