RETROACTIVE LIABILITY: RI’s New “Revival Window” Law
RI Legislative Update
Rhode Island’s New Child Sexual Abuse“Revival Window” Law removes the statute of Limitations on Abuse Cases
On June 11th Governor Dan McKee signed into law legislation that will allow sexually abused minors to bring a civil cause of action, during a two-year window, against entities that were previously protected by a statute of limitations. Victims will have 35 years from the age of 18 to file lawsuits during the revival period.
The legislation enacted specifies a two-year window from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2028 in which lawsuits can be filed against churches, youth groups or other entities that previously had the protection of a seven-year statute of limitations. During the first thirty days of the law being in effect, 50 lawsuits were filed in Superior Court. Local and national law firms are advertising heavily on the airwaves, informing victims of their new rights to file an action.
This unusual legislative action was fueled by a 264-page report issued in March by Attorney General Peter Neronha after an investigation of the Diocese of Providence’s records dating back decades. The report chronicled “over 300 documented victims who reported allegations of child sexual misconduct against 75 clergy members”. The report also stated that “the Diocese of Providence’s response was driven, whenever possible, by a single focus: concealment”. The report called for the passage of legislation which would remove the seven-year statute of limitations for the employers or supervisors of the actual abuse perpetrators and would prescribe that any party could be held financially accountable for “wrongful conduct, negligence or default in supervision, hiring, employment, training, monitoring, or failure to report” sexual abuse of a child.
The law did not pass without a little statehouse hardball. The primary sponsor of the House version of the bill, H-7200, was Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee, who is the chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee and the sister of Dr Ann Hagan Webb a sexual abuse survivor. Dr Webb has testified multiple times at legislative hearings about the horrible abuse she suffered as a child inflicted by a priest. Neronha refers to this legislation as “Annie’s Law”.
The House version of the bill passed the House and was sent over to the Senate on 4/14/26. After a hearing on 4/30/26, the Senate version of the bill, S-2616, was “held for further study,” and no action was taken on the House version. By the end of May, with the end of session looming, and the Senate having not taken any further action to pass the bill, rumblings began between the House and the Senate.
The Senate expressed an interest in attempting to get an opinion from the Rhode Island Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of passing a law that removes an entity’s legal protections under current law for incidents that have already occurred. Seeking an opinion would mean the bill wouldn’t pass this year.
At that point open warfare broke out between the two chambers. Conflict of interest allegations were hurled at the Senate while the attorney general was prodding Senate leadership to pass the bills.
On June 1st a deal was made between the two chambers, some minor changes were made to both the House and Senate versions, and they both quickly crisscrossed, each passing both chambers on June 8th.
Some insurers were hoping to have their lobbyists convince the governor to veto the bills on constitutionality grounds. Instead, Gov McKee quickly held a signing ceremony with legislators to sign the bills into law with as much publicity as possible.
Most people in the insurance industry look at this issue through different colored glasses than legislators or the general public. The final floor vote on the legislation in the House was 69 yea, 4 nay, and 1 NV. In the Senate, it was 37 yea, 0 nay, and 2 NV.
Revival type laws exist in many other states already and they keep evolving. On September 30th, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell held a press conference to announce her office had found evidence that more than 270 priests had abused nearly 1,000 children over several decades. She announced that she herself is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She is calling for changes in the Massachusetts statute of limitations.
Hang onto those 40-year-old policies.
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Ernest (Ernie) Shaghalian Jr., CPCU, AAI
Ernie serves as Chair of the IIARI Government Affairs Committee.