California AB 218: No Deadline, Certificate of Merit, Treble Damages

California’s AB 218, signed in 2019 and effective January 1, 2020, rewrote the rules for childhood sexual abuse lawsuits by extending the filing deadline to age 40, opening a three-year window to revive expired claims, adding treble damages when an institution covered up the abuse, and eliminating the government tort claim requirement for suing public entities. The statute has been amended since, and Code of Civil Procedure Section 340.1 now imposes no time limit at all on childhood sexual assault claims, though survivors who are 40 or older when they file must clear an extra procedural step.¹

What AB 218 Originally Changed

Before AB 218, California gave survivors a much narrower window to sue. The law rewrote Code of Civil Procedure Section 340.1 to push the deadline to 22 years after the survivor turned 18, effectively age 40, or five years from the date the survivor discovered that a psychological injury was caused by the abuse, whichever came later.² That change reflected what mental health professionals have long recognized: many survivors don’t connect their adult struggles to childhood abuse until decades later.

AB 218 also created a three-year revival window, running from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2022, during which survivors could file claims that had already expired under the old deadlines. That window has closed. Survivors who did not file during those three years cannot use it retroactively.

The Current Rule: No Filing Deadline

Section 340.1 has since been amended, and it now goes further than AB 218 originally did. The statute states that “there is no time limit” for filing a civil action for damages from childhood sexual assault.¹ That applies to three types of claims:

Direct claims against the person who committed the abuse.
Negligence claims against any person or entity that owed the survivor a duty of care and whose wrongful or negligent conduct was a legal cause of the assault.
Claims against any person or entity whose intentional act was a legal cause of the assault.

A survivor who is 50, 60, or older can still bring a claim today, regardless of when the abuse occurred.

Certificate of Merit for Plaintiffs 40 and Older

Removing the deadline did not remove all filters. Survivors who are 40 or older when they file must submit certificates of merit before the case can move forward.¹ Two separate declarations are required.

The survivor’s attorney must confirm they reviewed the facts, consulted with at least one mental health practitioner knowledgeable about the case, and concluded there is reasonable and meritorious cause for filing. A licensed mental health practitioner, one who is not treating the survivor, must interview the survivor and provide a professional opinion that there is a reasonable basis to believe the abuse occurred.

The attorney has to execute a separate certificate for each defendant named in the complaint. No defendant can even be served until the court reviews the certificates in a private proceeding and finds the claim has reasonable merit. Failing to file the required certificates is grounds for dismissal.¹ Survivors under 40 are not subject to this requirement.

Treble Damages for Institutional Cover-Ups

One of AB 218’s most consequential provisions lets courts award up to three times the actual damages when the survivor proves the abuse resulted from an institutional cover-up.² The statute defines a “cover up” as a concerted effort to hide evidence relating to childhood sexual assault.¹ Isolated negligence or a single failure to report likely won’t qualify. The plaintiff has to show a coordinated, deliberate effort to suppress evidence.

Proving a cover-up usually turns on what an institution’s internal records reveal. Civil discovery lets attorneys demand internal emails, personnel files, incident reports, and sworn testimony. Recurring patterns include quietly transferring accused staff instead of firing or reporting them, denying families access to investigation results, pressuring survivors or witnesses to stay silent, and dismissing complaints without genuine investigation.

The financial exposure is real. If a jury awards $2 million in compensatory damages and the cover-up element is proven, the total judgment could reach $6 million.

Suing Public Schools and Other Government Entities

California normally requires anyone suing a government agency to first file an administrative claim under the Government Tort Claims Act, typically within six months of the incident. AB 218 eliminated that requirement for childhood sexual assault claims. The current statute provides that a claim for damages from childhood sexual assault “is not required to be presented to any government entity prior to the commencement of an action.”³

This matters because public school districts are among the most frequently sued institutions in childhood sexual abuse cases. Before AB 218, many claims failed at the threshold because the survivor never filed the required government tort claim, often because they didn’t know the requirement existed or didn’t recognize the abuse until decades later. A California appellate court has already rejected a school district’s argument that AB 218 unconstitutionally created retroactive liability amounting to a gift of public funds, holding that removing the tort claim requirement did not create new substantive liability but simply removed a procedural obstacle.

Federal Tax Treatment of a Settlement or Judgment

Survivors who recover money should know that federal tax treatment is more complicated than most people expect. Damages received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness are excluded from gross income under federal tax law.⁴ The statute, though, explicitly says emotional distress alone does not count as a physical injury or physical sickness.

If the abuse involved physical contact causing bodily harm, damages attributable to those physical injuries are generally tax-free. Damages for purely emotional or psychological harm, which often make up the bulk of the recovery, may be taxable unless the survivor can tie them to a physical injury. Emotional distress damages can be excluded up to the amount the survivor actually spent on medical care for that distress.⁴ Punitive damages, and likely the treble-damages multiplier portion, are taxable regardless of the underlying injury. How the settlement agreement characterizes each component of the payment matters, and a tax professional should review the structure before it’s finalized.

Practical Notes for Survivors

Even without a filing deadline, delay still works against a case. Witnesses die or become unreachable. Documents get destroyed through routine retention policies. Memories become harder to corroborate. The legal right to file at any age is valuable; the strength of the case almost always benefits from filing sooner.

Most attorneys handling these claims work on contingency, so the survivor pays no upfront legal fees. The attorney’s fee typically comes out of any recovery, generally one-third to 40 percent of the total. Other litigation costs, such as expert witnesses, court filing fees, and deposition transcripts, are usually advanced by the attorney and reimbursed from the recovery. Survivors who don’t prevail typically owe nothing, though the specific fee arrangement should be confirmed in writing before signing a retainer.

For plaintiffs 40 and older, the certificate of merit step has a practical upside. A qualified mental health professional independently confirming the claim has a reasonable basis strengthens the case before significant litigation costs begin to accumulate.¹

1
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 340.1
2
California Legislative Information. AB-218 Damages: Childhood Sexual Assault: Statute of Limitations
3
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 340.1
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness