The old rule: one year, then nothing
Louisiana calls its time limits for lawsuits "prescription." For generations, a claim for personal injury, including sexual abuse, prescribed one year after the injury. For a child abused at fourteen, the right to sue was gone by fifteen, long before most survivors can speak about what happened. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse disclose, on average, decades later, if ever. The old rule was written for a world that did not understand that.
The first reforms: longer periods, but still a clock
Beginning in the 1990s the Legislature lengthened the time for child abuse claims and let the clock start later, generally from when the survivor turned eighteen or discovered the harm. By the 2010s, Louisiana allowed claims for sexual abuse of a minor for a set number of years after adulthood. Progress, but a survivor who came forward at forty was still, in most cases, too late.
2021: Louisiana removes the clock and opens a window
In 2021 the Legislature enacted Act 322. Going forward, it eliminated any time limit on civil claims for the sexual abuse of a minor. Looking backward, it revived claims that had already expired under the old rules and opened a window in which to file them. Act 386 of 2022 confirmed the revival. This is a "lookback window": a period during which the courthouse door is reopened for claims the old law had closed, no matter how old.
What "revived" means for you. If you were abused as a minor at the school in 2016, 2006, 1996, or 1986, and never sued because the time had run, the Legislature has restored your right to bring that claim, provided you file it while the window is open.
2024: the Louisiana Supreme Court upholds the window
Institutions challenged the revival law, arguing that once a claim had prescribed, a defendant had a vested right to be free of it. In March 2024 the Louisiana Supreme Court initially agreed, in Bienvenu. On rehearing, on June 12, 2024, the court reversed itself and upheld the law: the revival statute is constitutional and reaches "all causes of action related to sexual abuse of a minor that previously prescribed under any Louisiana prescriptive period." It applies to every claim connected to the abuse, against the abuser and against the institutions that allowed it.
The extension: June 14, 2027
The window was extended by the Legislature to June 14, 2027. Revived claims must be filed, meaning a lawsuit actually placed on the court's docket, before that date. Reaching an attorney, gathering records, and preparing a claim take time, which is why this site asks survivors to come forward now.
Revived civil claims must be filed before this date. If you are not sure whether your claim is "revived" or "never expired," an attorney can tell you in one conversation, at no cost.
Federal law adds its own protections
- 18 U.S.C. section 2255. A federal civil remedy for victims of certain federal sex offenses against minors, including the production of abusive images, with a guaranteed minimum recovery and no time limit.
- Title IX. A school that receives federal funds and responds to known sexual abuse with deliberate indifference is liable to the student harmed. The school's sworn testimony that six students complained is the knowledge element in its own words.
- Federal criminal law. The production of child sexual abuse material carries no statute of limitations, which is one reason a criminal case remains possible years after the conduct.
Mandatory reporting: what the school was required to do
Louisiana's Children's Code makes teachers, school administrators, and other listed professionals mandatory reporters. When they have cause to believe a child is endangered by abuse, they must report it to child protection authorities or law enforcement immediately. Failing to do so is itself a crime under La. R.S. 14:403. Whether any report was ever made in this matter is a question the school's Executive Director answered under oath and public records requests to three agencies are now testing. The federal spoliation judgment, and the announced fact that the State Police investigation began only in August 2026 on a new complaint, frame that question.
Criminal case versus civil claim
| Criminal case | Civil claim | |
|---|---|---|
| Who brings it | The State, through the District Attorney, or the United States, through the United States Attorney | You, through your own attorney |
| What it seeks | Conviction and sentence | Accountability and compensation, from the abuser and from the institutions responsible |
| Your role | Victim and witness, with constitutional rights, if you choose to participate | Plaintiff, in control of your own case, under a pseudonym |
| Standard of proof | Beyond a reasonable doubt | More likely than not |
| Deadline | None for the production of child sexual abuse material under federal law | June 14, 2027 for revived Louisiana claims |
| Status today | Active and ongoing, per the Louisiana State Police | Claims being compiled for filing |
You may participate in one, both, or neither. Speaking with an attorney about a civil claim never obligates you to testify in the criminal case; cooperating with investigators never requires you to sue. A criminal conviction, if one comes, also makes the civil case simpler: Louisiana law prevents a convicted defendant from denying in a later civil case the facts established by the conviction.
Your privacy in court
Louisiana law allows survivors of sexual abuse to proceed under a pseudonym, such as Jane Doe or John Doe, and permits records identifying survivors to be sealed. Your name does not have to appear in any public filing. Victims of sex offenses are separately protected from public identification in the criminal process by La. R.S. 46:1844(W).