Personal Injury Advocate
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Are you a survivor of sexual abuse wondering if it is too late to do anything about it?

It is not too late to ask. You do not have to have all the answers before you reach out.

Are you in danger right now?

  • Call 911 if you are in immediate danger.
  • Get somewhere safe.
  • Call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) if you need someone to talk to right now.
  • Call the RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673. It is free and confidential, any time.
  • This page is for after you are safe.

This page covers survivors' civil rights and options, at your own pace. We are the survivor's advocate. We connect you with a lawyer who handles cases like yours, so you have real support behind you. Always free. When you are ready, talk to an advocate. We usually reply within minutes, at most one business day.

You have two separate paths, and you do not need both

Many survivors do not realize that a criminal case and a civil claim are two different things.

You do not need a criminal conviction, or even a criminal case at all, to bring a civil claim. These paths can move on their own timelines, and choosing not to pursue one does not close the door on the other.

Why "the deadline already passed" may not be true anymore

For years, many states gave survivors of childhood sexual abuse only a short window, often ending in their early twenties, to file a civil claim. Researchers and advocates argued this ignored how long it can take a survivor to come forward. In response, many states have passed laws that permanently extend these deadlines going forward, and a number of states, including New York, opened temporary "lookback windows," which allow survivors to file a civil claim for older abuse that would otherwise be too late under the old rules.

Warning: don't assume it's too late. Old deadlines were a trap for many survivors, and assuming the old rule still applies can mean missing a window that is now open. New York's Child Victims Act is the best-known example. It opened a lookback window that let survivors sue over abuse from any point in the past, regardless of when it happened, for about two years starting in 2019. Roughly 11,000 civil claims were filed in New York under that window (City & State New York, investigation into Child Victims Act settlements). Other states have passed their own versions of this kind of law. Whether your state currently has an open window, a longer standard deadline, or something else entirely varies by state and can change as new laws pass. Check your state's current rule on our state pages rather than assuming it is too late.

A survivor lookback case that succeeded

New York City has paid out roughly $160 million in settlements connected to Child Victims Act lawsuits, most of them involving claims against city agencies, including the Department of Education, according to a City & State New York investigation into the settlements (City & State New York). These settlements represent real survivors who were able to bring civil claims about abuse from years or decades earlier, because New York's lookback window gave them a path that would not have existed under the old deadline. The same investigation found that many other filed claims are still moving through the courts, showing that pursuing a claim under one of these laws can be a long process, but it is a real one.

What real civil claims connected to lookback laws have paid

These are publicly reported results. They show how widely cases vary. They are examples only, and we are not a law firm. No one can promise or predict what any claim is worth, and many resolve for different amounts.

Talk to an advocate. There is no pressure and no deadline to reach out.

What to do, whenever you are ready

There is no required order here, and no deadline for reaching out to us for support, even if a legal deadline for your specific situation is uncertain.

  1. When you are ready, talk to an advocate at WeHelpInjured. It is free.
  2. If you want to explore a civil claim, ask about your state's current deadline rules. Deadlines and lookback windows vary by state and change over time. See our state pages for what applies where you are.
  3. Move at your own pace. Gather your thoughts, any documents, or your own account of what happened whenever you feel ready, not all at once.
  4. You do not need to have reported to police, or have any criminal case moving forward, to explore a civil claim.

A few gentle notes

What we can help with

All of it is free to you. We never take money from survivors.

Talk to an advocate. Whenever you're ready, we're here to listen. There is no pressure and no deadline to reach out to us.

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