Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Hello. I'm 39 and am interested in suing my mother for child abuse, which obviously was 30 ish years ago. Statute of limitations is an issue, I'm aware. Is there any way around this? My short story is this: while I've been aware of the abuse my ENTIRE life, I mostly tabled it and just brushed it off for years. Fast forward to about 2 years ago. Things changed. I had a son. The active, youngish life is gone and I've been more and more confronted with what I've tried to ignore most of my adult life. I'm pretty messed up from it and have been to many shrinks. I do NOT care about getting 1 penny from this. This isn't a cash grab! I have a job and steady income and am not even materialistic too begin with. What I do seek, is vindication. I feel I need closure and that she should pay for what she has done. Frankly, I think she needs to be imprisoned. If that's out of the question then perhaps a monetary settlement will be the only "punishment," and that would be better than nothing in my eyes, since there are only 2 ways of "punishing people" in our legal system (money or prison, or both I suppose).

So is there anyway around these statute of lims? I didn't realize I was damaged psychologically 10 years ago, so how could I have sued her then? I realized it (the abuse) had happened, but I lived a life (falsely) in a way that enable me to get by. Now I'm front and center with all the horrible things that I cannot get out of my head, I'm married, I have a son, and it ALL came back to me the day I had my son, 2 years ago. All the AWFUL memories that haunt me silly. What people that were not abused may never understand is this. Once you are abused, there's like a microchip in your brain and it really screws with you, and as I'm finding out, it screws with you MUCH more when your young days are behind you and you are entering mid-life.

Thanks,

James

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