Image source - wfuv.org
People sexually abused as adults would have a chance to sue the perpetrators even if the usual deadline to bring a lawsuit had expired under a bill gaining momentum in New York’s legislature. Historically, time limits exist for civil lawsuits because it becomes hard to hold a fair trial as time goes by. Memories fade. Evidence is lost. Witnesses die or become hard to find.
The bill, called the Adult Survivors Act, would give abuse survivors a one-year window in which to bring lawsuits that would otherwise be barred by the state's statute of limitations. A similar window created in 2019 for victims of childhood sexual abuse led to an avalanche of lawsuits over decades-old allegations of abuse against priests, teachers, Boy Scout leaders and others.
“An arbitrary statute of limitations with a time to come forward to bring a case doesn’t necessarily work when it comes to traumatic experiences,” said Civil Court Judge Heela Capell. “And so what the Adult Survivors Act would do is give survivors that were over the age of 18 at the time of a sexual assault the opportunity to come forward now.”
Survivors and advocacy groups, including Safe Horizon and New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, are lobbying on behalf of victims to urge the Legislature to pass the bill before it wraps up its session on Thursday, June 10.
So far, the bill hasn’t gotten much traction in Albany but supporters remain hopeful, even with less than ten scheduled legislative session days left but less opposition hasn’t seemed to clear a path to automatic passage.