BATON ROUGE (LA)
WWL-TV [New Orleans LA]
August 17, 2023
By David Hammer
It’s the first time a higher court in La. has ruled on the constitutionality of the so-called “lookback window,” which gave 3 years for victims to file lawsuits.
BATON ROUGE, La. — In a major victory for sexual abuse survivors, a Louisiana appeals court ruled a state law reviving decades-old claims of abuse is constitutional.
It’s the first time a higher court in Louisiana has ruled on the constitutionality of Louisiana’s so-called “lookback window,” which provided three years, starting in 2021, for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits for damages, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred.
The Diocese of Lafayette was the latest Catholic Church entity to argue the lookback window was unconstitutional, trying to bar a complaint by a man who alleged he suffered sex abuse by a priest in 1961 or 1962.
In another case that went to the Supreme Court, Holy Cross also argued the law was unconstitutional and violated the Catholic college’s right to protect its property against complaints after the prescriptive period, or statute of limitations, had already expired.
That case went to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which declined to rule on the lookback window’s constitutionality. The ruling Thursday by the state’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court, which would then have to rule on the constitutionality question.
The Louisiana Legislature passed the lookback window in 2021, amending a 1993 law to eliminate any statute of limitations on claims of child sex abuse. Lawmakers responded to victim testimony and scientific research stating that child sex abuse victims don’t tend to recover repressed memories and report their abuse until they are in their 50s.
State laws have changed over the years to recognize that children aren’t likely to report abuse by adults while they were still children. Originally, children had just one year to file a claim or lose their right to do so. That was later expanded to give alleged victims time after they turn 18. In the 2021 law, the deadline to file was eliminated completely for all cases of child sexual abuse going forward.
The law also eliminated the statute of limitations for victims of past sexual abuse, allowing them to file new complaints of child sex abuse, no matter how old, until June 14, 2024.
Church entities and their insurers argued the lookback window enacted in 2021 shouldn’t apply to any abuse that occurred before 1993. But the Legislature came back in 2022 and clarified that it intended to revive all claims of sexual abuse of minors, regardless of when it allegedly happened.