- Supreme Court of Louisiana cases of childhood sex abuse
- October 9, 2024
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On June 12th, 2024, the Louisiana Supreme Court released an opinion upholding the statute of limitations look back window that the Louisiana legislature passed in 2021. This window in the statute of limitations was passed by the legislature to allow survivors of childhood sex abuse to file lawsuits no matter how many years in the past the abuse occurred. The statute of limitations in Louisiana had required that lawsuits be filed within one year of when the abuse occurred.
Children who suffer sex abuse almost never tell anyone and frequently are threatened by the abuser not to tell. Therefore, there has been almost no way for survivors of childhood sex abuse to seek justice in the legal system when they become adults and can really comprehend the wrong that has been done to them.
This decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court was a surprise because just a few months prior, March of 2024, the court had issued a ruling finding that the window in the statute of limitations was unconstitutional under the Louisiana constitution and that survivors of childhood sex abuse could not bring their claims.
This final court decision by the Supreme Court of Louisiana followed years of complex litigation involving primarily cases involving the Catholic diocese in Louisiana and survivors of childhood sex abuse. The State of Louisiana is unique in the United States in that it follows a civil law system that involved French law rather than the English common law which is the basis of the law and all the other states.
One of the legal questions in the court’s opinion was whether a defendant such as the Catholic Church has a vested right under the Louisiana constitution in its statute of limitation to Be free of lawsuits for events that took place many years in the past. The general purpose of a statute of limitations is to prevent people and organizations from having to defend lawsuits for events that occurred years in the past.
In other words, it required individuals with civil claims to file those claims within one year or lose their right to do so. This may be fair in a situation such as a car accident where an individual might be injured by somebody running a stop sign. It would be unfair for a defendant to have to defend such a case that occurred 10 or 15 years prior during which time evidence could be lost and witnesses could disappear.
However, in the case of childhood sex abuse the statutes of limitation operate to protect child predators and allow them to continue to abuse. Children are easily intimidated not to tell anyone about abuse that occurred. Children are also many times not believed when they accuse a powerful and trusted adult.
This is why Louisiana, and several other states have passed legislation to open windows or extend the statutes of limitations in cases of childhood sex abuse.
The law in this area is complex and those who have been abused as children should get legal advice as soon as possible by a lawyer who specializes in this area of law practice.
Our law firm has been handling these cases in all states across the US for over 25 years. Call us at 800-748-7115 for a free confidential opinion.