Massachusetts at a glance
Rules, not your dateChild sexual abuse: the civil deadline
Until age 53 (35 years after the abuse, paused until 18), or 7 years from discovery, whichever is later. Older claims against institutions get only the discovery rule. The rule is in Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, §§ 4C, 4C½.
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
3 years (general tort period). The rule is in Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 2A.
Revival and lookback windows
A window that revives expired sexual abuse claims is open in Massachusetts. It opened on June 26, 2014. The law is St. 2014, c. 145, § 8.
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
None for these claims. Childhood sexual abuse claims against a public employer do not require the usual 2-year presentment and follow ch. 260, § 4C½. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 258, § 4.
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 Massachusetts
We do not track a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts 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.
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, §§ 4C, 4C½ (childhood claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 2A (adult claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- St. 2014, c. 145, § 8 (revival window). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 258, § 4 (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).
