Delaware HB 75: What a Permanent Elimination of the Civil SOL Would Mean for Your Rights as a Survivor

Reviewed by Survivor Rights Center · Updated 2026-07-10

What Rights HB 75 Would Create and Why Permanence Matters

Delaware's HB 75, pending in the state General Assembly in 2026, would do something that no amount of temporary lookback legislation can fully replicate: it would establish a permanent legal right for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file a civil lawsuit against abusers and enabling institutions at any point in their lives. There would be no age-based deadline, no discovery rule triggering a countdown, and no window that the legislature could allow to expire. The right to civil redress would not have a closing date.

Understanding why permanence matters requires understanding what statutes of limitations actually do. A SOL is a legislative choice to set a cutoff on when legal claims can be filed. Its original purpose was to protect defendants from having to defend against claims where witnesses are gone and evidence has faded. In the context of childhood sexual abuse, however, the most powerful defendants are institutions that have spent decades actively managing, concealing, and minimizing records of abuse. The evidence the SOL is theoretically designed to protect has been deliberately suppressed, not innocently lost. Permanent elimination acknowledges that distinction.

From a rights perspective, what HB 75 creates is symmetry: the same indefinite timeline that institutions have used to manage their exposure would apply to survivors' ability to seek accountability. An institution that concealed abuse and waited for statutes of limitations to expire would no longer be able to count on that strategy working. The legal right to sue would remain intact regardless of how much time had passed.

How Delaware's HB 75 Compares to Active Lookback Windows in Other States

Active lookback windows in 2026 give survivors in certain states a temporary filing opportunity, but all of those windows have closing dates. California's AB 2777 childhood sexual abuse lookback closes December 31, 2026. California's AB 250 adult survivor window closes December 31, 2027. Rhode Island's new window, which opened July 1, 2026, closes June 30, 2028. New York City's GMVA revival window closes March 2027. Every one of those windows creates a temporary right that expires when the window closes.

Delaware's HB 75, if enacted, would create something those windows do not: a permanent right. There is no window to miss, no deadline to race, and no need for the legislature to renew the provision in future sessions. The right exists and continues to exist regardless of when a survivor is ready to use it. This is the principal structural advantage of permanent elimination over window-based legislation from a survivor rights perspective.

The trade-off is that permanent elimination requires a higher level of legislative support to enact than a temporary window. Institutions subject to indefinite exposure have stronger opposition incentives than institutions facing a bounded window. Delaware's ability to pass HB 75 would depend on the legislature overcoming that opposition, which is why advocates and survivors who support the bill should track its progress and make their views known to their representatives.

What Current Delaware Law Says and What Rights Survivors Have Now

Under current Delaware law, survivors of childhood sexual abuse have a filing window based on age and discovery. The prior Delaware Child Victims Act lookback window, which produced more than 100 civil lawsuits in 2007 and 2008, has closed. Survivors whose claims were time-barred after that window closed may currently have no civil path in Delaware unless HB 75 passes or a new window is created.

This is the legal reality that makes HB 75 significant: it addresses the gap created when prior windows closed and no permanent replacement was enacted. Survivors who experienced abuse in Delaware and did not file during the 2007 window, whether because they were not ready, were not aware of their options, or could not find adequate legal support, currently have no civil route in Delaware without a new legislative action.

If a survivor is uncertain about whether their claim falls within or outside the current Delaware SOL, consulting a civil attorney is the appropriate first step. The specific facts of when the abuse occurred, the survivor's age at the time, and the nature of any prior disclosures all affect the analysis. This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Survivors should consult a licensed attorney about their individual circumstances.

Federal Legislation Running Parallel to Delaware's HB 75

Delaware's HB 75 is advancing alongside multiple pieces of federal legislation in 2026 that address the same underlying rights question. H.R. 5560, the Statutes of Limitation for Child Sexual Abuse Reform Act, has been introduced in the House of Representatives and proposes grants to states that eliminate both criminal and civil statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse and revive previously time-barred claims. The bill creates a federal financial incentive for states to adopt the permanent elimination model.

Virginia's Law, introduced in the Senate, would create a federal civil cause of action for adult survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking, allowing claims to be filed without any time limit at the federal level. If enacted, this would give survivors a federal alternative to state-level SOL reform, bypassing the state-by-state patchwork of windows and deadlines entirely for covered claims. The bill was named in honor of a prominent survivor activist and has drawn significant attention from civil justice advocates.

The combination of Delaware's HB 75, the Colorado ballot measure, and federal legislation in 2026 represents a coordinated push toward the permanent elimination model at multiple levels of government simultaneously. The question of whether any of these efforts succeeds in 2026 will shape the civil rights landscape for survivors for years to come. Survivors interested in these legislative developments can follow them through RAINN's policy advocacy resources at rainn.org, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center at nsvrc.org, and congressional tracking tools at Congress.gov.

Six Rights That Permanent SOL Elimination Would Give Survivors Under HB 75

Permanent elimination of the civil statute of limitations creates a specific set of survivor rights that differ from those under a temporary lookback window. Here is what HB 75 would establish.

1. The right to file at any age: No deadline based on the survivor's age or the time elapsed since the abuse. A survivor could file a claim at 25, 45, 65, or any other age without being barred by a statute of limitations.
2. The right to choose your own timeline: Rather than acting within a government-set window, survivors would be able to decide when they are ready to come forward without being penalized for needing more time to process their experience.
3. The right to hold institutions accountable regardless of time: Institutions could not rely on the passage of time to foreclose civil liability. The accountability obligation would be ongoing rather than bounded by a legislative expiration date.
4. The right to pursue a claim without emergency-driven decisions: Window-based laws create pressure to file quickly or permanently lose the opportunity. Permanent elimination removes that pressure, allowing decisions to be made thoughtfully rather than under deadline stress.
5. The right to civil redress for previously barred claims: Survivors whose claims were previously time-barred under prior Delaware law would gain a new legal path, because HB 75 is intended to revive claims that existing deadlines had foreclosed.
6. The right to discovery and institutional records: Filing a civil claim opens the civil discovery process, giving survivors and their attorneys the legal right to demand that institutions produce records, personnel files, and internal documents related to the abuse and the institution's response.

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