Idaho at a glance
Rules, not your dateChild sexual abuse: the civil deadline
Until age 23, or 5 years after discovering the abuse and its link to an injury, whichever is later, for the statutory child abuse claim. That claim does not reach abuse before July 1, 1989. Common law claims, such as negligence, may be held to the 2-year period. The rule is in Idaho Code § 6-1704.
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
2 years (assault and battery, and general personal injury). The rule is in Idaho Code § 5-219(4), (5).
Revival and lookback windows
Idaho 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
Written claim within 180 days of when the claim arose or should have been discovered, and suit within 2 years. Since July 1, 2023, a claim filed by or on behalf of a minor in a child abuse case follows the 6-1704 timeline instead. The law does not say that this covers a survivor who files as an adult, so the 180-day rule may still apply. See Idaho Code §§ 6-905, 6-906, 6-906A, 6-911.
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 Idaho
We do not track a lawsuit filed in Idaho on this site as of October 7, 2026. Several of the cases we track are national proceedings rather than state ones; see every lawsuit we track and abuse by type of institution.
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.
- Idaho Code § 6-1704 (childhood claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- Idaho Code § 5-219(4), (5) (adult claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- Idaho Code §§ 6-905, 6-906, 6-906A, 6-911 (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).
