Washington at a glance
Rules, not your dateChild sexual abuse: the civil deadline
Abuse on or after June 6, 2024: no deadline. Earlier abuse: until age 21, or 3 years after discovering the injury and its cause, whichever is later. The rule is in RCW 4.16.340.
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 for assault and battery; 3 years for other personal injury claims such as negligence. The rule is in RCW 4.16.100(1); RCW 4.16.080(2).
Revival and lookback windows
Washington 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
A claim on the standard tort claim form goes to the local government, or for the State to the office of risk management, before suit. Suit may follow after 60 days, which are tolled. See RCW 4.96.020; RCW 4.92.100, 4.92.110.
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 Washington
- Juvenile facility sexual abuse lawsuits, state by state: Juvenile facility abuse cases in this state
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.
- RCW 4.16.340 (childhood claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- RCW 4.16.100(1); RCW 4.16.080(2) (adult claims). Accurate as of October 7, 2026.
- RCW 4.96.020; RCW 4.92.100, 4.92.110 (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).
