Why do child sex abuse victims in Missouri have only 10 years to file civil lawsuits?
An outdated Missouri law limits civil claims arising from sexual abuse offenses committed against children to a 10-year window.
House Bill 1411 would finally lift the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in child sexual abuse cases. The measure, which is sponsored by state Rep. Sheila Solon, a St. Joseph Republican, is scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday.
In 2018, Missouri lawmakers removed the statute of limitations for criminal child sex abuse offenses. Just as a time limit for criminal charges was misguided, so, too, is imposing an expiration date limiting survivors’ ability to seek justice through civil lawsuits.
As more allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy have emerged across the country, revealing decades of cover-ups, many other states already have extended or eliminated both the criminal and civil statutes of limitations. Missouri lawmakers should follow suit and act expeditiously to eliminate the time limit for civil claims.
“To have a rigid deadline, by which victims must step forward, is both unjust and unwise,” said abuse advocate David Clohessy, the former national president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “It’s unjust to those deeply wounded men and women who want to safeguard other kids from the horror they endured.”
Many victims of child sex crimes do not report the abuse they suffered until years later — or even decades. The trauma mostly surfaces in adulthood, Clohessy said.
“Tragically, by the time all of this happens, it’s usually too late for victims to act because of Missouri’s archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations that essentially gives those who commit or conceal these heinous crimes strong incentives to intimidate victims, threaten whistleblowers, discredit witnesses, destroy evidence and even flee the state or country,” he said. “We desperately need to reverse this.”
While there’s no doubt that Missouri’s current statute of limitations should be lifted, some advocates for protecting children have called for tweaks to the legislation, raising questions about whether it could allow lawsuits against individuals but absolve institutions that protected predators from blame.
They’re right that both institutions and individuals must be held responsible in these cases.
Missouri lawmakers must ensure that victims have every option available to hold predators responsible for their crimes — without the possibility of time expiring.