Three words.

Most legislators had never heard them. Most lawyers hadn’t, either.

Unless someone specializes in construction law, they’ve probably never encountered an obscure type of law known as a “statute of repose.”

Kathleen Hoke worked almost three decades as an assistant attorney general and law professor in Maryland before she bumped into the term. Now one might call her an expert.

“Being an expert in this space just means you understand it,” she said.

Hoke understands better than most the consequence of a bill passed by state lawmakers — unwittingly, some legislators say — to create a statute of repose for lawsuits over child sexual abuse. Five years later, the implications are still coming into focus.

Authorities recently told the courts they finished a nearly four-year investigation into the Archdiocese of Baltimore and uncovered a history of child sexual abuse by priests. The revelation set off…