Latest Action Alert

• Special Childhood Sexual Abuse Statute of Limitations: 8 Years (up to age 26) or 3 years after the date “the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse.” (with certificate of merit only).
  Ca. Civ. Proc. Code § 340.1(a)- (h)


• Limited Discovery Rule : 3 years. Actions against a person for committing childhood sexual abuse may be brought “within 3 years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by the sexual abuse . . . .” Id. Actions for liability against a person who owed the victim a duty of care and actions against a third party whose intentional act was the legal cause of the sexual abuse are barred on the victim reaches age 26, unless that person failed to take reasonable steps to prevent future unlawful sexual conduct by an employee or representative that it knew or had reason to know had engaged in such conduct. Id. § 340.1(b).
   
  
• 1 Year Window : From January 1, 2003. Id. § 340.1(c)
  Note: § 340.1(c) and (d)(1) (relating to the 2003 window) were found unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court in Perez v. Roe 1, 146 Cal. App. 4th 171 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. 2006)

• Delayed Statute of Limitations for Most Sex Crimes Against Victims Less than 16 : Until victim is 28 years old. Ca. Penal Code § 801.1 allows prosecutions for a number of felony sex crimes committed against victims younger than 18 to be brought any time before the victim’s 28th birthday. Felony sex crimes are sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration of victims less than 16, §§ 286, 288a, 288.7, and performing lewd or lascivious acts against a child under the age of 14, § 288.
   
• Reporting Window: 1 year : After the above Statute of Limitations has expired, prosecutions for a sexual crime committed against a victim younger than 18 may be brought within 1 year of the date a report is filed with a state law enforcement agency. Ca. Penal Code § 803(f). In this case, the allegations must be corroborated by admissible, independent evidence other than the victim’s own testimony. Id.
  

Latest Action Alert:

SB 131, as amended, Beall. Damages: childhood sexual abuse: statute of limitations. Existing law requires that an action for recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual abuse, as defined, be commenced within 8 years of the date the plaintiff attains the age of majority or within 3 years of the date the plaintiff discovers or reasonably should have discovered that psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority was caused by sexual abuse, whichever occurs later. Existing law provides that certain actions may be commenced on and after the plaintiff’s 26th birthday if specified conditions are met.

This bill would instead require that an action for recovery of damages suffered as a result of childhood sexual abuse be commenced within 12 or 25 years, as applicable, of the date the plaintiff attains the age of majority, or within 5 years of the date the fact of the psychological injury or illness occurring after the age of majority and its causal connection to the sexual abuse is first communicated to the plaintiff by a licensed mental health practitioner practicing within the state,whichever period expires later.

This bill would provide that these time limits for commencement of an action shall be applied retroactively to any claim that has not been adjudicated to finality on the merits as of January 1, 2014. This bill would revive, for a period of one year, a cause of action, as specified, that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations as of January 1, 2014, provided that the plaintiff discovered the cause of his or her injury on or after January 1, 2004. This bill would also provide that a plaintiff shall be entitled to conduct discovery before the court may rule on a motion challenging the sufficiency of the plaintiff’s showing that a person or entity knew or had reason to know, or was otherwise on notice, of any unlawful sexual conduct and failed to take reasonable steps, and to implement reasonable safeguards, to avoid those act in the future.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

Past Events:

1st Annual Safe4Athletes Texas Hold'Em and Casino Night

Thursday, April 25th, 2013 from 6:30-10:30pm (PDT)

Location: Home of Richard Riordan (Former Mayor of LA)
Los Angeles, CA 90049

Contact:

Jeffrey R. Dion
Deputy Executive Director
National Center for Victims of Crime

Director
National Crime Victim Bar Association
2000 M ST, NW Ste 480
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 467-8717
www.victimbar.org

An affiliate of the National Center for Victims of Crime
www.VictimsOfCrime.org

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests: California