California Sexual Abuse Revival Windows: What’s Open Right Now

California currently has a revival window open. Under Assembly Bill 250, which amended Code of Civil Procedure section 340.16, adult survivors of sexual assault may file civil claims that would otherwise be time-barred between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2027, where a private entity is alleged to have covered up a prior assault or allegation. Separately, childhood sexual abuse occurring on or after January 1, 2024 has no filing deadline at all.

What is a revival window?

A statute of limitations sets a deadline to file. Once it passes, the claim is ordinarily dead — regardless of merit.

A revival window is legislation that temporarily reopens the door. For a defined period, claims that had already expired can be filed. When the window closes, they expire again, generally for good. California has not historically extended these windows once set.

The AB 250 window — open now, closes December 31, 2027

AB 250 was signed on October 13, 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026. It creates a two-year period during which adult survivors may bring otherwise time-barred claims.

Who may qualify:

• The survivor was 18 or older at the time of the assault
• The claim would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations
• The complaint alleges that an entity, or its representatives, engaged in or attempted a cover-up of a prior instance or allegation of sexual assault by the perpetrator
• The claim is filed between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2027, or was already pending on January 1, 2026

Important limits:

• The revival reaches private entities. Claims against public entities are excluded from this window and are governed by different rules and much shorter deadlines.
• The cover-up allegation is not optional. It is an element of eligibility, which makes early investigation critical — a survivor frequently does not know a cover-up occurred until an attorney looks.

This window is why a survivor whose assault occurred in 2005, 2011, or 2018 should not assume the case is over.

Childhood sexual abuse — the January 1, 2024 dividing line

Abuse occurring on or after January 1, 2024: Code of Civil Procedure section 340.1 imposes no statute of limitations. A survivor may file at any age, at any time.

Abuse occurring before January 1, 2024: the pre-existing framework governs — generally until age 40, or within five years of discovering that psychological injury was caused by the abuse, whichever is later. The three-year lookback window created by AB 218 closed on December 31, 2022 and has not been reopened for childhood claims.

The practical result: many survivors of older childhood abuse are still within the deadline through the discovery rule, even decades later. That analysis is fact-specific and requires an attorney to run.

Claims against public entities — the deadline almost everyone misses

If the institution is a public school district, a county agency, a state facility, or another government entity, a government claim generally must be presented within a short statutory period — often six months — before a lawsuit can be filed at all. Certain childhood sexual assault claims are exempt from that requirement, but many institutional abuse claims are not.

This is the single most common way a strong case is lost. If a government entity is involved, the timeline is measured in months, not years.

What to do now

1. Do not self-diagnose the deadline. These provisions interact. The right answer depends on your age at the time, the date of the abuse, whether the defendant is public or private, and what the institution knew.
2. Preserve what exists. Old emails, texts, journals, therapy records, yearbooks, employment records, HR complaints, and the names of anyone you told.
3. Do not sign anything an institution sends you. Settlement offers and releases sometimes arrive precisely because a window is open.
4. Call before the window narrows. Investigation, records collection, and a government-claim analysis all take time. A file opened in 2027 has less room than one opened now.

Last reviewed: August 2026

The window closes December 31, 2027. Call 415-233-9688 for a free, confidential review of your deadline.