After fighting for years to lift the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse lawsuits, the architect of the Child Victims Act is considering a trio of changes to the law because of its potentially enormous impact on Maryland’s budget.

The proposals may come as a relief to lawmakers who are concerned about the state’s fiscal outlook.

Del. C.T. Wilson, who shared his own experience with childhood sexual abuse during the painful, protracted effort to pass the Child Victims Act, said Monday that he is working with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General on the changes. They could be filed later this week, he said.

The adjustments could include introducing a lower cap on damages for sexual abuse survivors who file their lawsuit after a certain time frame; more clearly defining “occurrences” of abuse under the law; and potentially creating an alternative dispute resolution process to avoid lawsuits.

“There’s no way I could have predicted it would be this many victims,” Wilson said. “I never thought in my wildest dreams it would be that many.”

The Child Victims Act lifted the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims and revived claims that were out of date, allowing survivors to file lawsuits no matter how long ago the abuse happened. The law opened the floodgates for lawsuits against churches, schools and other institutions that are accused of covering up abuse — including the state of Maryland.

Since the Child Victims Act passed in 2023, about 3,500 people have sued over alleged child sexual abuse they endured while in state care, mainly in juvenile justice facilities such as the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center and the Thomas J.S. Waxter Children’s Center in Laurel.

The Maryland Supreme Court upheld the Child Victims Act last month, clearing the way for lawsuits to proceed. That meant Maryland could be responsible for billions of dollars in damages.

With a budget picture that gets darker by the day, no one is sure where that money would come from. In the absence of a clear solution, all eyes in the General Assembly turned to Wilson.

“I think everybody’s waiting on me,” he said previously.

Wilson said he had been approached by both Gov. Wes Moore’s administration and by legislative leaders about making changes to the Child Victims Act.

Wilson, a Democrat who represents Charles County, first filed legislation that would close the “window” for claims against state government. He later said the bill was only a placeholder that was designed to get something on the books before the deadline for new bills passed and vowed not to shut the time window for claims.

Now, Wilson says he is finalizing several possible adjustments to the law.

One would create a new cap on the damages survivors could receive. As it stands, the Child Victims Act allows survivors to seek up to $890,000 for claims against state or local governments. The cap is higher for claims against private institutions.

While Wilson would not close the statute of limitations, his proposed change would make it so that survivors who file claims after a certain date would only be able to receive up to $400,000, he said. That’s the maximum allowed under the Maryland Tort Claims Act, which governs many lawsuits against the state.

“For a lot of people, it’s not going to be about the money,” Wilson said. “So it doesn’t stop them from being able to testify, to face their abuser. They’re just not going to be able to collect as much money.”

The Child Victims Act also allows survivors to seek damages “for each occurrence” of sexual abuse. The phrase has become a sticking point because some interpret it to mean that survivors could win $890,000 for each individual time they were abused. Wilson wants to clarify that was not the law’s intent.

“If one victim was victimized multiple times (by the same abuser), that’s one occurrence,” he said.

Finally, Wilson said he is considering creating an alternative dispute resolution process for survivors who want their stories to be heard but may not want to go to court. He suggested that the state attorney general’s office could write a report after hearing these stories, similar to the expansive grand jury report the office released following a lengthy investigation into the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The AG’s office consults with lawmakers on the legality of their proposals and is also defending the state in the Child Victims Act lawsuits. It declined to comment for this story.

David Lorenz, who heads the Maryland chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and pushed for the Child Victims Act for years, said he feels torn about the prospect of changes to the law.

“When we start focusing on how much money, we’re really missing the point that thousands of kids were abused in state institutions,” he said.

One of the most important goals of the Child Victims Act was to help publicly identify abusers and institutions that covered for them, Lorenz said. It is accomplishing that, he said, and will continue to do so regardless of how much money the lawsuits are worth.

So while he would be disappointed to see a change that lowers the amount of money survivors could receive in damages from the state, for example, Lorenz said he wouldn’t fight lawmakers over it.

The most important thing is that the window for abuse survivors to bring forward their claims remains open, Lorenz said.

“We know that it takes decades for people to come forward, and you’ve got to give them that time,” he said.