Most adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse who reach out to a lawyer hear some version of the same sentence first. They may be told that the case may be too old to file. In most states, that is often true. The civil deadlines were written decades ago, when no one understood how deep the trauma is and how long it actually takes a survivor to come forward.

Two states have done something different. Delaware in 2007, and Nevada through laws passed in 2021 and 2023, permanently eliminated the civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse. A survivor with a connection to either state, or to an institution that has one, may have a path forward no matter how many years have passed.

Delaware and the Law That Changed What Was Possible

The Delaware Child Victims Act of 2007, codified at 10 Del. C. section 8145, did two things at once.

First, it eliminated the civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse of a minor going forward. The statute says plainly that a cause of action based on the sexual abuse of a minor by an adult may be filed in the Superior Court of Delaware at any time following the commission of the act.

Second, it opened a two-year lookback window from July 2007 through July 2009 for survivors whose claims had already expired under the older deadlines. More than 175 lawsuits were filed during that window. The most consequential was filed against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.

On October 18, 2009, on the eve of a series of survivor trials, the The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy did not make the cases disappear. Rather, it consolidated them. In 2011, the Diocese reached a $77 million settlement with approximately 150 survivors. The Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, the religious order that operates Salesianum School in Wilmington, separately settled with 39 survivors for $24.8 million, with twelve Oblate priests publicly named. As part of the bankruptcy plan, the Diocese was required to turn over internal records documenting how it handled accused priests. Those records are now part of the permanent public history of what the Diocese knew, when it knew it, and what it chose to do.

What Delaware’s Law Covers Today

If you were sexually abused as a minor in Delaware on or after July 9, 2005, there is no deadline to file. You can be 25 or 75. The clock does not start, nor does it stop.

If your abuse occurred before July 9, 2005, the picture is more complicated. The original 2007 lookback window is closed. Delaware House Bill 75, introduced in March 2025, would change that. The bill passed the Delaware House 40-0 and was reported out of the Delaware State Senate Judiciary Committee on March 25, 2026. It awaits a vote by the full Senate.

If passed and signed, HB 75 would retroactively eliminate the civil statute of limitations for all childhood sexual abuse claims in Delaware, regardless of when the abuse occurred. It would expand liability to include institutions, organizations, and government entities, and it would waive the state’s sovereign immunity for these claims. If your abuse occurred in Delaware before mid-2005, this is one to watch closely.

Nevada and Two Laws Doing the Same Work

Nevada’s path to eliminating the civil statute of limitations took two bills passed three years apart, both with unanimous bipartisan support.

The first was Nevada Senate Bill 203, signed in 2021, which eliminated the civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse that occurred when the survivor was under 18. There is no deadline. The current statute is NRS 11.215.

The second was Nevada Senate Bill 129, signed by Governor Joe Lombardo on May 31, 2023. It eliminated the civil statute of limitations for adult survivors of sexual assault. The bill passed the Nevada Senate 20-0 and the Assembly 42-0. State Senator Lisa Krasner, who sponsored the bill, explained the reasoning on the Senate floor: it can take many years, if not most of a person’s life, for a survivor to gain the strength to come forward.

The combined effect is unusual. Nevada is one of only a handful of states in the country where both adult and childhood survivors of sexual abuse may file civil claims at any time, with no deadline at all. Both statutes apply retroactively, meaning claims that would have been time-barred before the 2021 and 2023 laws may be filed today.

The institutional litigation record in Nevada is newer than Delaware’s, but it is real. In June 2024, a federal judge approved a $9.95 million settlement in J.W. v. Clark County School District, the largest single-child abuse settlement in the district’s history. J.W. was a non-verbal autistic child who was physically abused by a teacher at Harley Harmon Elementary School between 2016 and 2018, while the district concealed what had happened from his family for years.

What If You Do Not Live in Delaware or Nevada

This is the question that matters to most readers, and it deserves a clear answer.

A favorable statute of limitations in another state does not automatically apply to your case. Courts apply what is called a “choice-of-law analysis” to determine which state’s law governs. The factors typically include where the abuse occurred, where the institution operated, where the parties lived at the time, and where the harm continued to be felt.

That said, there are real situations where Delaware or Nevada law may come into play for a survivor who does not currently live there.

The abuse may have occurred during a visit. Federal courts in Delaware have heard cases where both the survivor and the abuser were from other states, but the abuse happened in Delaware. These cases turn on personal jurisdiction and choice of law. They are fact-intensive, but not unheard of.

The institution may have Delaware or Nevada contacts. Delaware is the state of incorporation for roughly 300 of the Fortune 500. State of incorporation alone is rarely enough, but combined with other connections, such as where decisions were made, where records are kept, or where the institution does ongoing business, it may be part of the jurisdictional picture.

There is also an honest caution worth stating. State supreme courts are actively disagreeing about whether laws like these may revive previously expired claims at all. In January 2025, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court struck down that state’s effort to retroactively revive abuse claims, holding it violated the Maine constitution. The North Carolina Supreme Court has upheld that state’s lookback window going the other way. Whether a Delaware or Nevada forum is available to you, and what law a court would apply, depends on facts that a lawyer needs to evaluate directly.

This is not a question to guess at, and it is not a question to give up on either.

What Every Survivor Should Know Before Calling

A civil case does not require a criminal conviction against the abuser. The two tracks are entirely separate. You do not need to have reported the abuse at the time, since most survivors did not. You do not need to have every document or remember every detail, because civil discovery can surface records that even survivors did not know existed. And you do not need to be certain you want to file, only willing to have a confidential conversation with someone who knows how to evaluate the facts.

How Constant Legal Group Can Help

If you were abused as a child and have any connection to Delaware or Nevada, there may be no deadline on your claim at all. If that connection is harder to see, we can help you figure out where you may be able to file and under whose law.

Constant Legal Group represents survivors of institutional sexual abuse in all 50 states. We offer free, confidential consultations with no obligation and no upfront cost. We only get paid if we recover compensation for you.

Call us at 855-906-2561

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contact Constant Legal Group for a confidential evaluation specific to your circumstances. Case outcomes vary significantly based on the specific facts of each case, jurisdiction, and applicable law. Lookback window laws change frequently.