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It’s been quite a year for Los Angeles so far. I’ll bet that’s a number they weren’t ready for.
LA County agrees to $4B settlement over sexual abuse claims at juvenile facilities | Click on the image to read the full story https://t.co/au5tPSNYZw— KCCI News (@KCCINews) April 4, 2025
On 1 January 2020, a new California law – AB218 – took effect that expanded the statute of limitations for filing claims of childhood sexual assault and was retroactive.
This new law not only allows for a much greater expansion of the statute of limitations resulting in claims that may be filed decades later, it also requires (local educational agencies) LEAs to take reasonable steps or implement reasonable safeguards to avoid acts of childhood sexual assault when district employees are on notice or had reason to know of such a risk.
The new law
AB 218 extends the statute of limitations for filing claims of childhood sexual assault to 40 years of age, or up to five years after discovery, whichever is later. If the victim of childhood sexual assault proves that the assault was the result of a cover-up, the victim may recover treble damages: triple the amount of the actual/compensatory damages. A “cover-up” is defined as a “concerted effort to hide evidence relating to childhood sexual assault.” Childhood sexual assault means any act committed against a plaintiff that occurred when the plaintiff was under the age of 18 and that would have been prohibited by a category of crimes defined by the California Penal Code, such as child molestation, sodomy or forcible sexual penetration.
The law also allows for actions to be commenced on or after a person’s 40th birthday if the LEA “knew or had reason to know, or was otherwise on notice, of any misconduct that created a risk of childhood sexual assault by an employee or volunteer, or if the school district or county superintendent failed to take reasonable steps or to implement reasonable safeguards to avoid acts of childhood sexual assault.” Additionally, the law also opens up a three-year window for victims of any age to sue on previously expired claims that have not been “litigated to finality,” a phrase that is not defined and may include previously settled cases.
In the intervening years, the floodgates have opened on decades of stories about the horrific state of the child protective services run by Los Angeles County. They are ghastly.
Los Angeles County faced new allegations related to sexual abuse in its embattled juvenile detention facilities this week, the latest in a staggering tally of more than 5,000 adults who say they were abused as children in foster homes, shelters and probation-run camps and halls in recent decades.
