Every child deserves protection. Every survivor deserves the opportunity to seek justice.

Michigan's current law denies many survivors of childhood sexual abuse the opportunity to seek justice simply because too much time has passed. Trauma doesn't follow a legal deadline. Many survivors need years, or even decades, before they are able to process what happened, find their voice, or come forward.

As an attorney representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I have witnessed this reality firsthand. I currently represent survivors of abuse at Vista Maria in Michigan. Many of these courageous women are now over the age of 28 and, under current law, may never have the opportunity to hold their abusers or the institutions that failed them accountable—not because their claims lack merit, but because an arbitrary legal deadline has expired.

There should never be an imaginary line in the sand that determines when a survivor is allowed to seek justice.

The survivors I represent are not alone. Their stories reflect the experiences of countless survivors across Michigan, throughout the United States, and around the world. Childhood trauma is unlike any other injury. Survivors often need years or decades before they are able to speak about what happened because of fear, manipulation, shame, or the lasting effects of trauma. Our laws should recognize these realities instead of punishing survivors for the time it takes to heal.

States across the country have begun enacting survivor-centered reforms by extending or eliminating statutes of limitations and creating lookback windows that allow survivors whose claims were previously barred to finally seek justice. Michigan now has an opportunity not just to join that movement, but to lead it.

That is why we are calling on the Michigan Legislature to pass the Justice Has No Expiration Act—landmark legislation that would create a meaningful lookback window, remove arbitrary barriers to justice, strengthen institutional accountability, and recognize the unique realities of childhood trauma. Our goal is for this legislation to become a model for other states and inspire reform wherever survivors are denied access to justice.

This is about far more than individual lawsuits.  It is about truth.  It is about accountability.  It is about protecting future generations of children and ensuring that no institution can escape responsibility simply by waiting for the clock to run out.

Every child deserves to grow up safe.  Every survivor deserves the chance to be heard.  Together, we can build a movement that begins in Michigan but reaches far beyond its borders.

Trauma doesn't expire.  Justice shouldn't either.