Maryland's Supreme Court has agreed to take up a fight over whether public agencies are immune from some sexual abuse lawsuits filed under the state's Child Victims Act. Thousands of pending cases, and how much survivors can recover, may hinge on the outcome.
Reviewed by Abuse Justice Center · Updated 2026-07-14
Figures reflect reporting on Maryland's Child Victims Act litigation and the pending state Supreme Court appeal as of July 2026.
Maryland passed its Child Victims Act in 2023 to remove the old age-based deadline that had blocked many survivors of childhood sexual abuse from ever filing a civil claim. The law let people sue institutions and, in some cases, government agencies over abuse that happened decades earlier, opening the door to roughly 12,000 lawsuits statewide.
That surge of filings included cases against public school systems going back many decades. It is that specific category, claims against government-run schools for abuse that predates modern liability rules, that has become the center of a separate legal fight now heading to the state's highest court.
The state's top legal office has been arguing in courtrooms around Maryland that the government cannot be held liable for abuse that occurred before a specific point in the early 1980s, when a state law first required public bodies to carry insurance and exposed them to this kind of lawsuit for the first time. Before that date, the argument goes, there was no funding mechanism in place to pay these kinds of claims at all.
Survivors' attorneys counter that the Child Victims Act was written specifically to let old claims proceed, and that carving out an exception based on a decades-old insurance requirement undermines the entire point of the law. Different judges around the state have already reached different conclusions on this exact question, which is part of why the state's Supreme Court agreed to step in and resolve it uniformly.
This dispute is not just a technical Maryland issue. States across the country have been passing similar reform laws that remove old deadlines for survivors, and government defendants in several of those states have raised comparable immunity arguments. How Maryland's court rules could influence how similar fights play out elsewhere.
For the roughly 1,300 Maryland cases specifically tied to the disputed pre-1982 period, the stakes are enormous, with potential liability reported in the billions of dollars depending on how claims are counted. But it is worth remembering this fight is narrowly about claims against government bodies for the oldest incidents. It does not touch claims against churches, private schools, youth organizations, or other non-government institutions.
If your case involves a public school or other government defendant for abuse that happened before the early 1980s, your attorney should already be tracking this appeal closely, since a ruling could affect timing or strategy. If your claim was filed after that period, or against a private institution, this specific fight likely does not change your path forward at all.
Either way, a pending appeal at the state's highest court is exactly the kind of development where having your own attorney matters most. Case law can shift while a claim is active, and someone tracking your specific filing can adjust strategy in real time rather than leaving you to guess from headlines.
A pending appeal can feel like limbo, but there are concrete steps survivors and families can take right now.
Abuse Justice Center is a lawyer-matching and advocacy service, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. Matching and consultations are free, and network attorneys work on contingency. Need support now? The RAINN hotline is 800-656-4673, 24/7.
Only if your claim is against a government body, such as a public school system, for abuse alleged to have happened before the early 1980s. Claims against private institutions are not affected by this specific dispute.
Not necessarily. Courts have generally dismissed affected claims without prejudice, leaving open the possibility of refiling if lawmakers create a way for the state to pay these claims in the future.
A hearing date has not been set as of this writing, and a decision is expected sometime after the court's term begins in the fall of 2026.
Generally no. Waiting can risk running into other deadlines, and a free case review can help you understand your options now rather than pausing indefinitely.