Texas personal injury attorneys representing child sexual abuse victims are getting more calls from clients because of a new law that doubled their statute of limitations.

Other states, including New York and New Jersey, recently passed laws to permit a window of time in which child sex abuse survivors, regardless of whether their abuse happened six or 60 years ago, could sue their abusers and any institutions that enabled the abuse. Those states have been flooded with personal injury lawsuits. There might also be a wave of litigation in Texas, but because the state's new law isn't as lenient, the impact won't be as drastic.

House Bill 3809, effective Sept. 1, extended the statute of limitations from 15 years to 30 years for bringing personal injury claims related to six specific penal code violations involving sexual assault or sex trafficking of a child. HB 3809 is not retroactive. It will only apply to claims that accrue on or after Sept. 1, or to claims that accrued earlier, where the statute of limitations in effect at that time has not yet run.

Brent Walker, who represents survivors as a partner in Aldous \ Walker in Dallas, said that HB 3809 is a good step, but it didn't go far enough.

"It's very often the case that minors repress the memories, so they don't even know what happened to them until much later in life. It's very hard, if not impossible, to come forward and file a case within a statute of limitations," he said. "But I do expect more lawsuits, because we have talked to people in the past who fell outside of the statute of limitations, who fall within it now."

Other attorneys agree.

The Texas law will not bring justice for adults who experienced sexual abuse in their childhoods, according to Michelle Simpson Tuegel, a Dallas solo practitioner who has represented Boy Scout sex abuse survivors, and sex abuse victims of Larry Nassar, the convicted ex-doctor of USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.

Simpson Tuegel said HB 3809 won't bring a rush of cases, like in New York or New Jersey, because doesn't apply retroactively.

"Arguably, it applies to someone who is not an adult yet, because their statute still has not run. It doesn't start running until you're of the age of maturity," she said.

She said people who followed media coverage about the bill have already been calling her law office seeking representation, telling stories of being abused in the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church.

"Some of them I can do something for now—and some I can't," Simpson Tuegel said.

Still, when lawmakers doubled the statute of limitations, it sent a message to survivors that they should report sex abuse and take legal action, said an email by McKool Smith principal Lauren Varnado of Houston.

Varnado said she expects to see cases against religious organizations, schools, hospitals and youth programs.

"HB 3809 will likely open the floodgates for child sex abuse lawsuits against major institutions in Texas, similar to the hundreds of sex abuse cases that have been filed against the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America following the enactment of similar laws in other states," Varnado said. "Insurance companies are already preparing for a flood of sex abuse litigation. At least two major U.S. insurers have announced they are adding to their reserves due to uncertainty about sexual-abuse liabilities."

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