California Assembly Bill 218, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, made significant changes to the process of childhood sexual assault cases by extending and modifying the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits. Key changes include:

• Extension of the statute of limitations: Survivors of childhood sexual assault now have until age 40, or within five years of discovering the psychological injury caused by the abuse, whichever is later, to file a civil lawsuit. This is a substantial increase from the previous limit of age 26 or three years from discovery of damages

• Three-year lookback window: AB 218 created a revival period from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2022, allowing survivors of any age to file lawsuits for abuse that would have otherwise been time-barred due to expired statutes of limitations

• Treble damages for cover-ups: The law allows survivors to recover up to three times the actual damages if they prove that the sexual assault was covered up by an institution or individual through deliberate efforts to hide evidence

• Elimination of certain procedural barriers: The bill removed the Government Tort Claims Act’s claims-presentation requirements for childhood sexual assault claims against public entities, increasing accountability and access to justice

Overall, AB 218 expanded legal recourse for survivors by increasing the time frame to bring claims, reviving old cases, and imposing harsher penalties on those who attempted to conceal abuse