SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Imprint - Fostering Media Connections [Los Angeles CA]
August 28, 2025
By Sara Tiano
Proposed legislation would set Jan. 1 as the deadline for lawsuits against now-shuttered juvenile halls and an infamous former children’s shelter in Los Angeles County.
California lawmakers will vote on a bill this week making it harder to file child sexual abuse lawsuits against schools, juvenile facilities and foster care agencies that are already buckling under the weight of current and threatened legal action.
Among other new restrictions, Senate Bill 577 raises the burden of proof for older plaintiffs, requires costly pre-filing consultation with legal experts, and scales back higher damages awarded in particularly egregious cases.
The bill being heard in the Assembly appropriations committee Friday also sets a Jan. 1 deadline to file claims against Los Angeles County facilities: the MacLaren Children’s Center — a notorious former foster care shelter — and all county-run juvenile detention halls and camps that closed prior to 2020.
“Unfortunately, teachers and other public servants committed many of the cases of sexual abuse perpetrated against children, despite these persons being entrusted to keep California’s children safe,” a bill analysis states. “As a result, many public entities now face significant liability for their culpability in covering up, or generally not preventing, these heinous acts.”
It describes the cash-strapped state facing a $12 billion budget deficit, and frames the bill as a compromise that “seeks to provide some modicum of relief to public agencies while also trying to protect the rights of victims of these horrible acts.”
“These are people who’ve already endured unimaginable trauma. This bill sends the message that their pain is less important than institutional convenience.”— Assemblymember Kate Sanchez
After millions of adults pushed the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America to acknowledge widespread sex abuse of children, California and states across the nation lifted statutes of limitations for victims to seek redress in the courts.
A 2019 law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom set a three-year window for lawsuits to be filed for abuses that had passed the statute of limitations. Beyond that, the law gives survivors the right to sue until age 40, or within five years of discovering “psychological injury or illness” related to the abuse.
“This bill ensures that ‘time’s up’ for the perpetrators of childhood sexual assault, not for victims,” bill author Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez wrote at the time.
Then, last year a new law eliminated any statute of limitations for future survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue.
To date, 33 other states have passed laws allowing adults to sue for decades-old alleged sexual abuse, an acknowledgement that it takes many people many years to come forward about abuse endured as a child.
And that’s as it should be, said the only lawmaker who has so far voted against SB 577. In testimony before the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Assemblymember Kate Sanchez said she believes the proposed law “crosses a line” and “does a disservice to every survivor in California.”
“I understand the intent of making sure public entities are financially stable. But we cannot, under any circumstance, protect budgets at the expense of survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault,” Sanchez said. “These are people who’ve already endured unimaginable trauma. This bill sends the message that their pain is less important than institutional convenience.”
Supporters of the bill do not deny that abuse occurred in far too many cases. But they say California school districts and local governments have already been forced to pay billions of dollars in legal settlements they say they cannot afford.
‘Endless’ claims
Thousands of suits have poured in since California’s statute of limitations was lifted, including 6,800 that alleged abuse at MacLaren Hall, referred to in a recent lawsuit as a “house of horrors.”
The claims date back to the 1960s, and include children as young as 5 being molested. In one case, a plaintiff alleges she was impregnated by her abuser, a MacLaren staffer, and gave birth while living in the shelter for abused and neglected children. Los Angeles County has agreed to pay $4 billion to thousands of plaintiffs who said they were abused by employees at MacLaren and county-run youth detention facilities.
The state faces additional costs of $2 to $3 billion to settle lawsuits against school districts that have been filed in recent years, according to a January report from the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, an organization that helps California’s education system manage finances and data.
That analysis found the cost of childhood sexual abuse claims against California entities negatively impacts their ability to provide programs and services. Even state and local departments that haven’t been sued are facing rising insurance premiums for public entities, and some are unable to find insurance coverage at all.
“We’re in the middle of fiscal challenges that don’t allow us to put billions of dollars forward for this.”— Sen. John Laird
To minimize their exposure, SB 577 would increase the burden of proof for plaintiffs over age 40, and require them to file a “certificate of merit” — documentation proving that their lawyer had consulted with an expert and determined there were reasonable grounds to sue. According to the bill analysis, that proof is needed because the evidence put forth by claimants over age 40 is considered less reliable due to the amount of time passed.
The bill would also block plaintiffs from receiving what’s called “treble damages,” which is a mechanism that pays a victim triple the cost of actual damages to remedy particularly egregious actions. If signed into law, state agencies would have more time to pay out on settlements. Plaintiffs would also be prohibited from refiling dismissed lawsuits if five years had passed.
Sen. John Laird, who co-authored the pending legislation, said the bill was prompted by conversations with school district officials who were concerned they couldn’t cover costs of claims filed by former students alleging abuse by teachers many years ago.
He added that singling out the Los Angeles facilities for extra protections was needed because the county is “ground zero” for the unaffordable lawsuits against the government, with “endless” claims being filed by former MacLaren residents.
“We’re in the middle of fiscal challenges that don’t allow us to put billions of dollars forward for this,” Laird said.
Still, Chantel Johnson, directing advocate with the Youth Law Center, voiced concerns that the bill gives a pass to public institutions that allowed such grievous harm to come to children they’d been tasked to care for.
“At the very least,” Johnson said in July 15 testimony before the Assembly Judiciary Committee, “if the state cannot undo the trauma it allowed to happen, it should not block survivors from the foster and juvenile justice systems from seeking justice.”
The Youth Law Center, a prominent advocacy group, and Children’s Law Center of California, which represents foster youth, met with Laird on Aug. 12. They proposed new amendments, which include giving those who lived at MacLaren and detention centers until 2029 to sue and requiring the state to notify them soon of the new deadline.
Laird told The Imprint that further amendments to the bill are possible.