— Nationwide · institutional church abuse claims
Survivors describe the same devastating sequence, again and again: a child discloses abuse to their bishop, the family is told the Church will handle it, police are never called, and the abuser keeps his access to children. Civil lawsuits nationwide are now forcing that internal system into the open — and the Church to the settlement table.
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A lawsuit is never the urgent step. You are. The RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free, confidential and staffed 24 hours a day at 1-800-656-4673, with online chat at hotline.rainn.org . If you are in crisis, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by calling or texting 988.
If a child is being abused now, report to the NCMEC CyberTipline at 1-800-843-5678 or your local child protective services. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911. Where you safely can, keep letters, records, names and dates — but your safety and your health come first, always.
California cases the Church agreed
in principle to resolve in 2025
Related cases across 26 counties
coordinated in Los Angeles
2023 California jury award
in an LDS-linked abuse case
Upfront cost — no fee
unless you recover
For members and former members alike, the obstacles here are as much communal as legal.
A disclosure that produced nothing teaches survivors that reporting is pointless.
A report to a bishop that never reached police is central to this litigation. It establishes the institution had notice and chose internal handling over child protection, and records of it become powerful evidence in discovery.
Survivors assume institutional liability requires a person holding a calling.
If the abuse occurred in church programs, callings or settings, or if leaders knew of the risk and allowed continued access to children, the institution can be liable for negligent supervision and failure to warn.
For many survivors the community cost feels larger than any recovery.
Courts commonly allow these claims to be filed under initials or a Doe pseudonym rather than a full name. Whether it is permitted is decided case by case, so ask the firm directly before you decide anything.
Decades of silence feel like they must have closed every door.
Revival windows and eliminated deadlines in a number of states now cover decades-old abuse, and several recent LDS suits involve conduct from the 1980s and 1990s.
— The Pattern
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faces sustained civil litigation across the country alleging that bishops, stake presidents, high priests, youth leaders, missionaries and members sexually abused children — and that the Church’s internal reporting culture protected the institution instead of the child.
Complaints repeatedly describe the same mechanism: disclosures routed through the Church’s internal helpline and legal apparatus rather than to law enforcement; abusers informed of the accusation while victims were counseled toward forgiveness and silence; and known or even convicted offenders permitted to hold callings involving children.
In 2023, a California jury awarded $2.28 billion to a survivor whose case alleged that LDS officials ignored repeated warnings about her abuser and used intimidation to keep the abuse hidden. Verdicts on that scale reflect how juries respond when internal records show what an institution knew. They do not predict any other case’s outcome.
| California | In 2025 the Church agreed in principle to resolve more than 100 childhood sexual abuse lawsuits, including San Diego County claims alleging abuse by bishops themselves. 91 related cases across 26 counties are coordinated in Los Angeles, with filings alleging the Church used financial resources, internal legal systems and spiritual counseling to suppress allegations. |
| Pacific Northwest | Recent suits in Oregon and Washington allege leaders allowed known offenders — including a high priest with prior convictions — continued access to children in church programs and a church-run daycare. |
| Nationwide | Insurance-coverage fights over past settlements continue, and revival windows and eliminated deadlines in many states keep opening doors for older claims, including Rhode Island’s open window , which reaches any institution. |
The Church denies wrongdoing and says it complies with reporting laws. That is precisely why civil discovery matters here more than in almost any other abuse litigation: it compels the internal records, helpline logs and leadership communications that test those claims against what actually happened.
If any of these describe you, a free review is worth the two minutes it takes.
In wards, seminaries, scouting units, camps, youth programs or leaders’ homes.
Where the abuse occurred in church programs or callings, or leaders knew of the risk and allowed continued access.
That routing is the heart of these claims, not a side detail.
Former participants, missionaries, congregants and children of members all fall inside this litigation.
Revival windows and eliminated deadlines in many states now reach conduct from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
No criminal conviction is required, and institutional claims survive the abuser.
Survivors can typically proceed anonymously, and no criminal conviction of the abuser is required. Because many resolutions in this litigation are confidential, an experienced attorney’s judgment on valuation matters more here than in almost any other abuse claim.
No settlement returns what was taken, and confidential resolutions mean nobody can honestly quote you a number. What a claim can do is fund care and compel the records.
Confidential settlements are common in this litigation — the Church resolved more than 100 California cases in 2025 — but those resolutions follow filed lawsuits. They do not follow silence.
Filing is what preserves your rights before a deadline, what compels the internal records, and what puts a survivor inside a process rather than waiting outside it.
— What happens next
Nothing happens that you do not agree to, and you decide what to share and when.
Which ward, program or setting, roughly when, and your age at the time. Not what happened. Two minutes, free, no obligation.
Usually within a day. You decide what to share and when, and you can stop at any point without explaining why.
Helpline logs, leadership communications, calling and assignment histories and prior complaints — obtained through discovery, not from your memory.
Filed under a pseudonym where the court allows, in the state whose law reaches your claim.
That concern is the most common reason survivors never ask. A free, confidential conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Participating firms take these cases on contingency. The fee is a percentage of any recovery. If there is no recovery, no attorney fee is owed.
No retainer. No hourly billing. No invoice arriving while you are already paying for therapy. Cost should never be the reason a survivor never finds out what their options were.
Fee arrangements are set by the law firm you sign with, not by Direct2Attorney, and vary between firms and states. Settlements on behalf of a minor generally require court approval and may be placed in a protected account until the child reaches adulthood. Read the agreement and ask questions before signing anything.
Our intake team is trauma-informed. You share only what you choose to share, and nobody pushes you past that.
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We connect you with firms handling LDS claims in the coordinated California proceedings and in states with open windows.
Survivors routinely proceed under a pseudonym. Your information is encrypted and handled under our Privacy Policy.
Because so many resolutions are confidential, experience with this specific litigation counts for more than in most abuse claims.
What Direct2Attorney is
A legal marketing and referral service. We check whether your situation matches what participating law firms are looking for, and connect you with one of them if it does.
What Direct2Attorney is not
We are not a law firm, a counseling service or a reporting agency. For support, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free and confidential 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673. In an emergency, call 911.
You do not need a police report. You do not need a conviction. Your abuser does not need to be alive or still in the Church, and you will not be asked to describe anything on this page. If you told someone once and nothing happened, that conversation is free, confidential, and yours to end whenever you choose.
— Filing deadlines
Because this litigation is nationwide, the deadline that governs your claim is the one in the state where the abuse happened — and those rules have changed more in the last decade than in the previous fifty years. Several states have removed deadlines entirely. Others have opened revival windows that reach decades-old conduct for a limited period.
Select your state
Several states have temporarily reopened claims that were previously too late. These windows open and close on fixed dates, so a claim barred last year may not be barred now — and may be barred again later.
The 2026–2028 Rhode Island window is not limited to the Catholic Church and covers churches of any denomination.
Legislatures wrote these longer deadlines precisely because survivors of childhood abuse come forward years later. Waiting is normal and is not a weakness in your claim.
The deadline generally follows the state where the abuse occurred, which matters a great deal for a church whose members move between states.
Because these rules have moved so much in recent years, the answer people assume is almost always wrong — and it is wrong in both directions. It costs nothing to have someone check the state where it happened.
This is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a calculation of your deadline. Filing deadlines are set by state law, differ by claim type and defendant, change when legislatures amend them, and can be shortened or extended by facts specific to your situation. Nothing on this page tells you whether your claim is timely. Only an attorney licensed in your state can determine the deadline that applies to you. If a deadline passes, a claim is usually barred permanently regardless of its merits, so the safer course is always to ask early.
With a nationwide institution and a lifetime of moves, that is often genuinely unclear. Finding out takes about two minutes and costs nothing.
Significantly. A disclosure to a bishop that never reached police is central to these lawsuits — it shows the Church had notice and chose internal handling over child protection. Records of that disclosure become powerful evidence in discovery.
Often, yes. If the abuse occurred in church programs, callings or settings, or if leaders knew of the risk and allowed continued access to children, the institution can be liable for negligent supervision and failure to warn.
Confidential settlements are common — the Church resolved more than 100 California cases in 2025 — but they follow filed lawsuits, not silence. Filing is what creates the leverage, preserves your rights before deadlines, and compels the internal records.
Maybe not. Revival windows and eliminated deadlines in many states cover decades-old abuse, and several recent LDS suits involve conduct from the 1980s and 1990s. A free review confirms your state’s current rule.
Courts routinely allow childhood sexual abuse claims to proceed under initials or a pseudonym. Whether that is permitted is decided case by case, so ask the law firm directly how it would work for you before deciding anything.
No. Your current membership status has no bearing on whether you can bring a claim about what happened to you as a child.
Nothing. The review is free and confidential with no obligation. If a participating law firm takes the case, it will normally work on contingency, meaning the fee comes out of any recovery and no attorney fee is owed if there is no recovery.
Ask on the call, or by email first if that feels easier. There is no obligation either way.
— News & updates
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