Two lawsuits filed against Michael Jackson accusing him of sexual abuse have been revived by the appeals court in California.

James Safechuck and Wade Robson, the focus of last year’s documentary Leaving Neverland, allege Jackson abused them when they were children. The trial court originally dismissed their lawsuits as they had not been filed before the pair turned 26. But a new law, which came into effect on 1 January, raised the age to 40.

On Friday, a panel of judges within California’s second appellate district reversed the initial ruling.

“We’re glad the appellate court recognized the very strong protection that California has for kids, and we look forward to litigating these cases to trial,” said the pair’s attorney Vince Finaldi.

The suits target Jackson’s companies MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures. Howard Weitzman, the companies’ attorney, has criticised the ruling, referring to the allegations as “false” and suggesting the lawsuits “absurdly claim that Michael’s employees are somehow responsible for sexual abuse that never happened”.

Safechuck and Robson had also tried to sue the Jackson estate, but those suits were also dismissed because of the statute of limitations. They have not been revived as part of the new ruling. Finaldi said it was important to target the companies as “these people that surrounded him … enabled and facilitated this abuse”.

The Emmy-winning documentary premiered at Sundance in January 2019 and detailed graphic claims from Safechuck and Robson about the alleged abuse inflicted on them at Jackson’s Neverland ranch. “We can’t change what happened to us,” Robson said after the first screening. “The feeling is what can we do with that now.”