Key Takeaways
- Childhood abuse claims have no deadline. Section 13-202.2(f) of the Code of Civil Procedure says an action for damages based on childhood sexual abuse may be commenced at any time. There is no number to beat.
- One date decides old cases. That no-deadline rule arrived with Public Act 98-0276 on January 1, 2014, and it does not revive a claim that had already expired before that day.
- Adults abused as adults get two years. A personal injury claim runs 2 years under Section 13-202, though Section 13-202.3 stops that clock while the perpetrator is using threats, intimidation, manipulation or fraud.
- The Gender Violence Act runs longer. It allows 7 years for an act of gender-related violence, 4 years for a claim against an employer, and 2 years for a threat, each measured from age 18 for a minor.
- Age at the time is the first question. Whether you were under 18 when the abuse happened matters more than how long ago it was, so an old case is worth asking about rather than assuming it is closed.
People who were sexually abused often wait years before they are ready to talk to a lawyer, and by then many of them assume the law has run out on it. In Illinois that assumption is frequently wrong. For abuse suffered before the age of 18, the state has removed the filing deadline entirely. For abuse suffered as an adult the window is much shorter, but even then the clock does not always run the way people expect.
This guide walks through the deadlines that actually apply to civil claims in Illinois, section by section, using the statutory text as published by the Illinois General Assembly. Criminal charges follow a separate clock, which is covered near the end.
The Short Answer
Illinois does not have one sexual abuse deadline. It has several, and which one governs depends on three things: how old you were when the abuse happened, who you are suing, and which statute your lawyer files under. The single most important split is age. Abuse that happened while you were under 18 is governed by a statute with no time limit. Abuse that happened after you turned 18 is governed by statutes that do have limits.
Childhood Sexual Abuse: No Deadline At All
The controlling section is 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2, titled “Childhood sexual abuse.” Subsection (a) defines the term: childhood sexual abuse means an act of sexual abuse that occurs when the person abused is under 18 years of age, and sexual abuse includes sexual conduct and sexual penetration as those terms are defined in Section 11-0.1 of the Criminal Code of 2012.
What Subsection (f) Says
The operative language is short. Subsection (f) provides that, notwithstanding any other provision of law, an action for damages based on childhood sexual abuse may be commenced at any time. There is no 20-year outer limit, no age ceiling and no discovery test to satisfy. A survivor who was abused at 9 and is 62 today is inside the window, because there is no window.
The January 1, 2014 Cutoff That Decides Old Cases
Subsection (f) came from Public Act 98-0276, which took effect on January 1, 2014. The subsection carries a condition on its own reach: the change applies to actions commenced on or after that effective date if the action would not have been time barred under any statute of limitations or statute of repose prior to that date.
That single clause does most of the work in older cases. It means the 2014 amendment opened the door forward but did not reopen doors that had already closed. If a claim was still alive under the prior law on December 31, 2013, it is alive today and can be filed at any time. If it had already expired by then, removing the deadline did not bring it back. Working out which side of that line a decades-old case falls on requires applying the pre-2014 rules to the facts, which is one of the main reasons these cases are worth a conversation rather than a guess.
The 20-Year Rule That Still Governs Pre-2014 Claims
The older framework still sits in subsection (b), and it matters for exactly that cutoff question. It requires the action to be commenced within 20 years of the date the limitation period begins to run under subsection (d), or within 20 years of the date the person abused discovers, or through reasonable diligence should discover, both that the act of childhood sexual abuse occurred and that the injury was caused by it.
The statute is unusually explicit that those are two separate things. It states that knowing the abuse occurred is not, by itself, enough to start the discovery period, and that knowledge of the abuse does not constitute discovery of the injury or of the causal relationship between a later-discovered injury and the abuse. Where the abuse was part of a continuing series by the same abuser, subsection (c) measures the discovery period from the last act in that series.
Two further provisions delay the start. Subsection (d) states that the limitation periods do not begin to run before the person abused turns 18, and that if the person is under another legal disability at 18, they do not begin until that disability is removed. Subsection (d-1) states that the periods do not run at all during any time the person abused is subject to threats, intimidation, manipulation, fraudulent concealment or fraud perpetrated by the abuser or by anyone acting in the abuser’s interest.
What Changed on January 1, 2026
The version of Section 13-202.2 in force today took effect on January 1, 2026, under Public Act 104-159. It carries the same no-deadline rule, and it now applies that rule to a second category alongside childhood sexual abuse: a violation of Section 10-9 of the Criminal Code of 2012 in which the victim is a minor. Section 10-9 is the trafficking in persons, involuntary servitude and related offenses statute.
The 2014 text of subsection (f) referred only to childhood sexual abuse. The current text reaches both, throughout subsections (b), (c) and (f). For a survivor of child trafficking in Illinois, that is a meaningful change: the civil claim now sits under the same unlimited filing rule that childhood sexual abuse claims have had since 2014.
Abused As An Adult: The Two-Year Rule
If the abuse or assault happened after you turned 18, Section 13-202.2 does not apply. The default is 735 ILCS 5/13-202, the general personal injury statute, which requires an action for damages for an injury to the person to be commenced within 2 years after the cause of action accrued.
When The Two Years Does Not Run
The two years is not always two calendar years from the assault. 735 ILCS 5/13-202.3 addresses this directly. For an action arising out of an injury caused by sexual conduct or sexual penetration as defined in Section 11-0.1 of the Criminal Code of 2012, the Section 13-202 limitation period does not run during a time when the injured person is subject to threats, intimidation, manipulation or fraud perpetrated by the perpetrator, or by a person the perpetrator knew or should have known was acting in the perpetrator’s interest.
That covers a familiar pattern. Where a perpetrator held a job, a visa, a place to live or a reputation over someone to keep them quiet, the time spent under that pressure does not count against the two years. Section 13-215 adds a separate rule for fraudulent concealment of a cause of action, allowing five years from the point the person entitled to sue discovers it.
For anyone who was a minor when the claim accrued but whose claim falls outside Section 13-202.2, the general rule in 735 ILCS 5/13-211 allows the action to be brought within 2 years after turning 18, or after a legal disability is removed.
The Gender Violence Act: A Separate And Longer Route
Illinois also has a standalone civil statute, the Gender Violence Act at 740 ILCS 82, and its deadlines are longer than the personal injury default. Section 10 creates a cause of action for anyone subjected to gender-related violence, against a person who perpetrated it, which the Act defines as personally committing the violence or personally encouraging or assisting it.
Section 5 defines gender-related violence in four parts: (1) acts of violence or physical aggression satisfying the elements of battery, committed at least in part on the basis of a person’s sex, whether or not there were criminal charges; (2) a physical intrusion or invasion of a sexual nature under coercive conditions satisfying the elements of battery; (2.5) domestic violence as defined in the Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act; and (3) a threat of any of those acts causing a realistic apprehension that it will be carried out.
Section 20 then sets three different deadlines, and which applies depends on which definition fits:
- 7 years for violence under paragraphs (1), (2) or (2.5), measured from 7 years after the person turns 18 if they were a minor when the claim accrued.
- 2 years for a threat under paragraph (3), on the same age-18 measurement for minors.
- 4 years for a claim against an employer under Section 11, again measured from age 18 for a minor.
Suing An Employer
The employer route is narrower than the deadline alone suggests. Section 11 limits employer liability to gender-related violence committed in the workplace where the interaction arose out of and in the course of employment, and then only where the employer failed to supervise, train or monitor the employee, or failed to investigate complaints of similar conduct reported to a supervisor, manager, owner or designated person and failed to take remedial measures. An employer that provided training under Section 2-109 of the Illinois Human Rights Act has an affirmative defense that adequate training was given.
Illinois Sexual Abuse Filing Deadlines At A Glance
| Claim | Deadline | Measured from | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Childhood sexual abuse | None | Not applicable | 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2(f) |
| Child trafficking, minor victim | None | Not applicable | 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2(f) |
| Childhood abuse, pre-2014 analysis | 20 years | Age 18 or discovery | 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2(b) |
| Adult assault, injury claim | 2 years | Accrual | 735 ILCS 5/13-202 |
| Minor, general injury claim | 2 years | Age 18 | 735 ILCS 5/13-211 |
| Gender-related violence | 7 years | Accrual or age 18 | 740 ILCS 82/20 |
| Gender violence, vs employer | 4 years | Accrual or age 18 | 740 ILCS 82/20 |
| Gender violence, threat | 2 years | Accrual or age 18 | 740 ILCS 82/20 |
| Fraudulent concealment | 5 years | Discovery | 735 ILCS 5/13-215 |
What Starts And Stops The Clock
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Under 18 at the time | Removes the deadline entirely for childhood sexual abuse claims under Section 13-202.2(f). This is the single most important fact in the analysis. |
| The 2014 effective date | The no-deadline rule reaches claims that had not already expired before January 1, 2014. A claim that was already time barred on that date was not revived. |
| Discovery of the injury | Under the 20-year framework, knowing the abuse happened is expressly not the same as discovering that an injury was caused by it. Both are required before the period starts. |
| Threats or manipulation | Stops the clock while it continues. Section 13-202.2(d-1) applies to childhood claims and Section 13-202.3 applies to adult claims arising from sexual conduct or penetration. |
| Legal disability | Delays the start until the disability is removed, under Section 13-202.2(d) for childhood abuse claims and Section 13-211 more generally. |
| A continuing series of acts | For childhood abuse by the same abuser, the discovery period is computed from the last act in the series rather than the first, under Section 13-202.2(c). |
| Which statute you file under | The same facts can support a personal injury claim at 2 years and a Gender Violence Act claim at 7. Filing under the wrong one can forfeit the longer window. |
Criminal Charges Run On A Different Clock
A civil lawsuit and a criminal prosecution are separate proceedings with separate deadlines, and one does not depend on the other. You do not need a conviction, a criminal charge or even a police report to bring a civil claim.
On the criminal side, 720 ILCS 5/3-5(a)(2) provides that a prosecution for any offense involving sexual conduct or sexual penetration, as defined by Section 11-0.1 of the Criminal Code, may be commenced at any time. Illinois has removed the criminal limitations period for these offenses as well. Whether charges are actually brought is a decision for prosecutors, not for the survivor, which is one reason the civil route matters independently.
If You Think Your Claim Is Too Old
The pattern we see most often is someone who decided years ago that it was too late and never asked. Given how Illinois law now reads, that is worth re-testing. A few things are worth gathering before a conversation:
- Your age when the abuse occurred. Under 18 puts you in Section 13-202.2 and, in most cases, outside any deadline.
- Roughly when it happened and when it stopped. For a continuing series, the last act is what the discovery rule measures from.
- Who else may be responsible. Claims often run against an institution that employed or supervised the abuser, not only against the individual.
- Anything that kept you silent. Threats, intimidation, manipulation or concealment can stop the clock under Sections 13-202.2(d-1) and 13-202.3.
- When you connected the harm to the abuse. That is a distinct date from when you knew the abuse happened, and the statute treats it as such.
You do not need to have all of this straight before calling. A lawyer’s job includes reconstructing the timeline.
How Mike Agruss Law Helps
Our firm handles civil sexual abuse and assault claims across Illinois, including cases involving institutions. If you want to read more about a specific setting, these pages go into detail:
- Sexual abuse and assault lawyers in Illinois
- Sexual abuse and assault lawyers in Chicago
- Sexual abuse and assault lawyers in Aurora
- Sexual abuse and assault lawyers in Springfield
- Church and clergy sexual abuse claims
- School sexual abuse claims
- Doctor and medical provider sexual abuse claims
- Nursing home abuse and neglect claims
For deadlines on other kinds of Illinois injury claims, see our guide to the statute of limitations in Illinois. Consultations are free and confidential, and we work on a contingency fee, so there is no cost to ask whether your claim is still open.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a statute of limitations on sexual abuse in Illinois?
Not for childhood sexual abuse. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2(f), a civil action for damages based on childhood sexual abuse may be commenced at any time. If the abuse happened after you turned 18, the general personal injury deadline of 2 years under 735 ILCS 5/13-202 usually applies, and the Gender Violence Act may allow 7 years.
How long do I have to sue for childhood sexual abuse in Illinois?
There is no deadline. Illinois removed the limitations period for childhood sexual abuse claims effective January 1, 2014. The one qualification is that the change does not revive a claim that had already expired under the older rules before that date.
Can I sue for abuse that happened 30 or 40 years ago?
Often yes, if you were under 18 at the time. The question is whether your claim was still alive on January 1, 2014 under the law as it stood then, which involved a 20-year period that did not start until you turned 18 and did not start until you discovered both the abuse and the injury it caused. That analysis is fact specific and worth having a lawyer run.
What is the deadline if I was abused as an adult?
The default is 2 years from when the claim accrued, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-202.3, that period does not run during any time you were subject to threats, intimidation, manipulation or fraud by the perpetrator or by someone acting in the perpetrator’s interest.
Does the Gender Violence Act give me more time?
It can. Under 740 ILCS 82/20, a claim for an act of gender-related violence must be brought within 7 years, a claim against an employer within 4 years, and a claim based on a threat within 2 years. For a person who was a minor when the claim accrued, each period runs from the date they turn 18.
Do I need a criminal conviction to file a civil lawsuit?
No. A civil claim is independent of any criminal case. You do not need a conviction, criminal charges or a police report. Separately, 720 ILCS 5/3-5(a)(2) allows a prosecution for an offense involving sexual conduct or sexual penetration to be commenced at any time.
Can I sue a school, church or employer rather than the individual?
Often yes. Claims against institutions generally rest on their own negligence in hiring, supervision or response. Under the Gender Violence Act, 740 ILCS 82/11 sets specific conditions for employer liability, including failure to supervise or train, or failure to investigate reported complaints of similar conduct and take remedial measures.
What if threats or manipulation kept me from coming forward?
Illinois law accounts for that. For childhood abuse claims, 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2(d-1) says the limitation periods do not run during any period in which you were subject to threats, intimidation, manipulation, fraudulent concealment or fraud by the abuser or by anyone acting in the abuser’s interest. Section 13-202.3 applies a comparable rule to adult claims.
Sources
- 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2, Childhood sexual abuse (Source: P.A. 104-159, eff. 1-1-26)
- 735 ILCS 5/13-202, Personal injury
- 735 ILCS 5/13-202.3, Tolling for sexual conduct or penetration
- 735 ILCS 5/13-211, Minors and persons under legal disability
- 735 ILCS 5/13-215, Fraudulent concealment
- Public Act 098-0276, which added subsection (f), effective 1/1/2014
- 740 ILCS 82/20, Gender Violence Act limitations
- 740 ILCS 82/5, Gender Violence Act definitions
- 740 ILCS 82/11, Employer liability
- 720 ILCS 5/3-5, Criminal general limitations
- 720 ILCS 5/10-9, Trafficking in persons and involuntary servitude
This article explains Illinois filing deadlines in general terms and is not legal advice. Limitations rules turn on specific facts, and applying them to a real case requires a lawyer who knows the details. Statutes are current as of September 1, 2026. If you think you may have a claim, talk to a lawyer before assuming any deadline has passed.
