Maine at a glance
Rules, not your dateChild sexual abuse: the civil deadline
No deadline for claims that had not expired under the earlier limit by August 11, 2000. Claims that expired before then cannot be revived. The rule is in 14 M.R.S. § 752-C.
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 (general civil period). The rule is in 14 M.R.S. § 752.
Revival and lookback windows
Maine opened a window that revived expired sexual abuse claims. It ran from October 18, 2021 to January 28, 2025. It is closed now. The law was 14 M.R.S. § 752-C(3), added by PL 2021, c. 301, §1; held unconstitutional as applied to expired claims in Dupuis v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland, 2025 ME 6.
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 notice within 365 days after the claim accrues, or within 365 days after turning 18 if the claimant was a minor (later for good cause); suit within 2 years, or within 2 years after age 18 for a minor. Neither section mentions the no-deadline rule for childhood abuse, and the text does not say which controls. See 14 M.R.S. §§ 8107, 8110.
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 Maine
We do not track a lawsuit filed in Maine 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.
- 14 M.R.S. § 752-C (childhood claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- 14 M.R.S. § 752 (adult claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- 14 M.R.S. § 752-C(3), added by PL 2021, c. 301, §1; held unconstitutional as applied to expired claims in Dupuis v. Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland, 2025 ME 6 (revival window). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- 14 M.R.S. §§ 8107, 8110 (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).
