Half of California’s Catholic dioceses expect to be subpoenaed by the state attorney general as part of an investigation into whether they have properly handled allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

The subpoenas are expected for Los Angeles and San Francisco and the dioceses of Sacramento, Fresno, San Jose and Orange – six dioceses that have already been voluntarily providing documents since May, a church spokesman, Kevin Eckery, said on Tuesday.

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The subpoenas come as a new law taking effect on 1 January is expected to bring many more lawsuits when it temporarily lifts age limits on filing abuse claims that may be decades old.

The office of the California attorney general, Xavier Becerra, sent letters to all 12 California dioceses in May asking them to voluntarily retain documents related to abuse allegations that have forced the church to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to victims. But only six were asked to produce documents, and it is those six that have been told to expect subpoenas, Eckery said.

Becerra’s office said on Tuesday that it does not comment on potential or ongoing investigations, to protect their integrity.

Church leaders were told last week that the subpoenas would be issued, but they have not yet been received. Eckery did not know what additional material state investigators are seeking.

“That will be in the language of the subpoena, so we don’t know the full scope. We can assume it’s to further the existing review on compliance with mandatory reporting,” he said. “I think it’s kind of a belts-and-suspenders approach, plus these records contain things that are not our property – for instance we can’t be giving out medical records willy-nilly” unless there is a court order.

Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento said in a statement that the church “is committed to a full accounting of the past sins of clergy sexual abuse, and to doing all we can to ensure it never happens again”.

Last year Becerra asked victims of clerical sex abuse to submit complaints to his office.

The law to temporarily lift age limits was proposed in the wake of the scandal involving Larry Nassar, the former US Olympic gymnastics teams doctor convicted of sexually abusing young athletes, and is expected to affect institutions such as the Roman Catholic church and the Boy Scouts of America, along with school districts, hospitals, youth sports groups and other entities.

Previously, survivors of child sexual abuse had to file a lawsuit within eight years of becoming an adult. The new law has opened the floodgates to a wave of potential lawsuits, and advocates said the reforms have given new hope to victims who previously had no options in the legal system to seek justice.

“The idea that someone who is assaulted as a child can actually run out of time to report that abuse is outrageous,” California assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez said when she introduced the bill. “More and more, we’re hearing about people who were victims years ago but were not ready to come forward to tell their story until now. We shouldn’t be telling victims their time is up when in reality we need them to come forward to protect the community from future abuse.”