08/24/2026
Massachusetts stops listening to survivors at age 53.
That’s the current civil deadline for childhood sexual abuse claims—35 years from a survivor’s eighteenth birthday, and then the door closes.
It’s law because the legislature chose that number in 2014. Right now, they’re deciding whether to change it.
In July, Massachusetts Representative John Lawn attached Amendment 110 to Senate Bill 3141. It would end the civil deadline going forward, open a two-year window for survivors whose claims already expired, and lift the $20,000 cap that currently limits what a survivor can recover from a charitable institution. The House adopted it.
It’s not law yet. The bill sits in a conference committee, where provisions get traded away quietly and negotiations can run into January.
Two months earlier, Lawn wrote in the Boston Globe Media that he is a survivor himself. He had filed these bills for years and watched them die without ever saying why they mattered to him. Eight of his words are now on advocacy materials across the state: “Trauma does not operate on a legal timeline.”
We wrote this for the people who looked into their options, were told they were too late, and put it away. If the window opens, it will be two years—and windows close.
If you’re in Massachusetts, the most useful thing you can do this week is email your representative and senator.
The link is in the comments below! 👇
