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Governing provision

The first-degree offenses — § 131.125(2): a prosecution for rape in the first degree (ORS 163.375), sodomy in the first degree (163.405), unlawful sexual penetration in the first degree (163.411) or sexual abuse in the first degree (163.427) “may be commenced within 20 years after the commission of the crime or, if the victim at the time of the crime was under 18 years of age, anytime before the victim attains 30 years of age, whichever occurs later.” 

The second and third-degree offenses, and a reporting cut-off — § 131.125(3): fourteen listed felonies including rape in the second and third degree, sodomy in the second and third degree, unlawful sexual penetration in the second degree, sexual abuse in the second degree, incest, using a child in a display of sexual conduct, encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree, promoting and compelling prostitution and luring a minor may be commenced “within six years after the commission of the crime or, if the victim at the time of the crime was under 18 years of age, anytime before the victim attains 30 years of age or within 12 years after the offense is reported to a law enforcement agency or the Department of Human Services, whichever occurs first.” 

Read that last clause carefully — in subsection (3) the measure is “whichever occurs first”, not “whichever occurs later”. A childhood report to law enforcement or DHS starts a twelve-year clock that can expire before the survivor turns thirty, and it is the earlier of the two that governs. Subsection (4) does the same for four misdemeanors, with a twenty-second birthday and four years from report. 

Only homicide is unlimited — § 131.125(1): aggravated murder, murder, attempted murder or aggravated murder, conspiracy or solicitation to commit either, and any degree of manslaughter “may be commenced at any time”. No sexual offense is in that subsection. 

The residual — § 131.125(8): three years for any other felony, two years for any misdemeanor, six months for a violation. 

Two conditional routes to an unlimited period — § 131.125(10)(a): where the defendant is identified by DNA comparison after the ordinary period, prosecution for rape, sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration or sexual abuse in the first degree “may be commenced at any time”; but § 131.125(11) then requires that it be commenced within two years of the DNA identification. § 131.125(12)(a): where the prosecuting attorney obtains corroborating evidence of the same four first-degree crimes after the ordinary period, prosecution “may be commenced at any time”, with the five permitted categories of corroboration set out in (12)(b) and a duty in (13)(a) to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury. 

The 2023 amendment was expressly retroactive but non-reviving — the note printed with the section reads: “The amendments to ORS 131.125 by section 1 of this 2023 Act apply to offenses committed before, on or after the effective date of this 2023 Act [January 1, 2024] but do not operate to revive a prosecution barred by the operation of ORS 131.125 before the effective date of this 2023 Act.” 

Two features are worth carrying: the thirtieth birthday is the practical ceiling for every childhood sexual offense in Oregon, which is short; and the “whichever occurs first” drafting in ORS 131.125(3) and (4) means that reporting the abuse can shorten the period rather than extend it — the opposite of the reporting rules in North Dakota and Ohio.

Or. Rev. Stat. ch. 131 — Oregon Legislature, official ORS text (§ 131.125 with the 2023 applicability note)

The codified rule looks absolute — ORS 12.117(1)(b): “An action based on child sexual abuse or conduct allowing, permitting or encouraging child sexual abuse may be commenced at any time.” 

BUT IT APPLIES ONLY GOING FORWARD — Or. Laws 2025, ch. 447, § 3(1): “Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, the amendments to ORS 12.117 and 12.118 by sections 1 and 2 of this 2025 Act apply to claims arising on or after the effective date of this 2025 Act.” The Act carried an emergency clause and took effect on passage, 26 June 2025. 

The Act says so about itself. The measure summary printed on the bill reads, in terms: “Prospectively eliminates the statute of limitations for civil actions based on sexual assault or child sexual abuse.” 

The old rule is preserved by name for earlier third-party claims — Or. Laws 2025, ch. 447, § 3(2)(a): “A claim based on conduct allowing, permitting or encouraging child abuse or child sexual abuse that arises before the effective date of this 2025 Act is subject to the statute of limitations provided in ORS 12.117 (1)(a), unless a final judgment has been entered on the claim before the effective date of this 2025 Act.” Section 3(2)(c) defines final judgment as one for which the time to appeal has expired without an appeal, or which is not subject to further appeal or review. 

What the old rule is — ORS 12.117(1)(a), unchanged: an action based on conduct constituting child abuse, or conduct allowing, permitting or encouraging child abuse, occurring while the person was under eighteen “must be commenced before the person attains 40 years of age, or if the person has not discovered the causal connection between the injury and the child abuse, nor in the exercise of reasonable care should have discovered the causal connection between the injury and the child abuse, not more than five years from the date the person discovers or in the exercise of reasonable care should have discovered the causal connection between the child abuse and the injury, whichever period is longer.” 

So, there are two Oregons. Abuse occurring on or after 26 June 2025: no deadline at all. Abuse occurring before that date: forty, or five years from reasonable discovery, whichever is longer — the rule that has governed Oregon since 1989. Because almost every claim now being brought concerns abuse before June 2025, the old rule is the operative one for most survivors. 

The definitions are wide — ORS 12.117(2)(b): “child sexual abuse” means rape of a child, which includes rape, sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration and incest as defined in ORS chapter 163; sexual abuse as defined in chapter 163 where the victim is a child; and sexual exploitation of a child, including conduct violating ORS 163.435 and allowing, permitting, encouraging or hiring a child to engage in prostitution or commercial sexual solicitation. ORS 12.117(3): “Nothing in this section creates a new cause of action or enlarges any existing cause of action.” 

The adult provision moved the same way — ORS 12.118, as amended by § 2 of the same Act, now provides that an action based on conduct constituting sexual assault, or allowing, permitting or encouraging sexual assault, of a person eighteen or older “may be commenced at any time”; and § 3(2)(b) preserves the five-year discovery rule for third-party claims arising before the effective date.

ORS ch. 12 — Oregon Legislature, official ORS text (ORS 12.117 with the chapter 447 applicability note printed beneath it) 

H.B. 3582 (2025), enrolled — Oregon Legislature, sections 1 to 4 including the applicability and emergency clauses

There is no revival provision in H.B. 3582. Section 3 is the whole of the Act’s treatment of earlier claims, and it does the opposite of reviving them: it applies the amendments to claims arising on or after the effective date, and preserves the pre-existing ORS 12.117(1)(a) rule for earlier third-party claims. 

The 2015 amendment was retroactive; the 2025 one is not. Laws 2015, c. 98, § 2 amended ORS 12.117 and gave rise to litigation about its reach. The 2025 Act contains no comparable language. Any impression that Oregon revived time-barred claims in 2025 comes from reading the codified section without the uncodified applicability provision. 

No Oregon appellate decision on the constitutionality of the 2025 Act was located, and none is asserted.

H.B. 3582 (2025), enrolled — Oregon Legislature, § 3 (applicability) and § 4 (emergency clause)