New York courts brace for surge of cases under new Child Victims Act
By Lia Eustachewich and Priscilla DeGregory
New York Post
August 13, 2019
The Child Victims Act goes into effect on Wednesday — a landmark law expected to unleash a torrent of lawsuits from victims of child sex abuse seeking long-awaited justice.
The new law opens up a so-called “look-back window” for one year and one year only, allowing victims of any age to seek civil action against their abusers, regardless of how long ago the abuse happened.
After the one year, which only applies to civil action, victims have up until the age of 55 to file a lawsuit against their abusers and the institutions that enabled the abuse to go on.
The new law also streamlines the legal process by eliminating the requirement to file a notice of claim, the precursor to a lawsuit.
It also has a criminal element. Victims now have until age 28 to press felony charges and age 25 for misdemeanors — five-year increases from the previous statute of limitations.
The old statute of limitations for civil actions was three years beginning when the victim turned 18 years old.
Since the Child Victims Act was signed into law Feb. 14, law firms across the state have been prepping for a crush of lawsuits, which can be filed starting at midnight Wednesday in any one of the state’s 62 supreme courts.
“[Wednesday] is a profound day for [the victims],” said lawyer Michael Pfau, whose firm and another firm will file dozens of suits on behalf of more than 550 victims.
“It is really hitting home to our clients that after 10, 20, 50 years, they are going to have a voice in this state and in this court system to tell their stories and obtain justice.”
Pfau’s complaints will be lodged against Rockefeller University Hospital, long accused of allowing a late pediatrician to molest dozens of young patients, and the beleaguered Boy Scouts of America.
“We are also filing lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church, against every diocese in the state,” Pfau said. “We are going to see real change in these institutions that have harbored and employed these pedophiles. Their legal exposure will force change.”
Law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates plans to file more than 200 suits under CVA, saying dozens of alleged abusers will be publicly identified for the very first time.
“[Survivors] now have an opportunity to take back power stolen from them when they were kids and start to heal,” said attorney Jeff Anderson.
Carrie Goldberg, who led lobbying efforts that resulted in the state’s just-passed revenge porn law, said her clients are reaping the benefits of CVA even before it goes into effect.
“We’ve already seen major impacts for our clients based on the threat to sue, including a settlement of $850,000 for a Brooklyn woman who suffered many years of abuse by a family member starting from age 3 or 4,” Goldberg said.
She said on Wednesday her firm will be filing a suit against an upstate school in connection with a teacher there who sexually assaulted a teenage student.
“Money is never an adequate remedy and won’t undo the memories and pain, but money can make life more comfortable for a victim, and help them to afford costly resources like therapy and medication, not to mention life’s luxuries that they’re more deserving of than their abusers,” Goldberg said.
Other lawyers said CVA will help hold powerful institutions accountable.
“These institutions are going to have to answer for why they did not take action to prevent the sexual abuse and in many instances we are going to be uncovering efforts to cover-up and bury the sexual assault,” said Jordan Merson, who plans to file more than a hundred cases starting Wednesday.
Court administrators are well-prepared for the unprecedented influx of suits, which will be handled by 45 designated judges statewide, spokesman Lucian Chalfen said.
“From what we have heard, there is an expectation of numbers in the thousands and we have spent months preparing for it,” he said.
He said over the last three weeks, Manhattan Supreme Court saw an average of 500 suits filed week. The court could see nearly 10 times that amount on Wednesday.
Court staffers have recently undergone judicial training on the new law and issues that can typically arise in such cases. New rules have also been implemented to try to fast-track the cases to trial.
“The revived Child Victims Act cases are critically important cases, raising numerous challenging legal issues, that must be adjudicated as consistently and expeditiously as possible across the state,” said Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks. “We are fully committed to providing appropriate and sufficient resources to achieve that goal.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: While I do not care the least bit for Gov. Cuomo, I must say he was right and honorable in enacting the Child Victims Act.
1 comment:
Had the church done the right thing 50 years ago they wouldn't have their collective butt in a crack right now. That is the problem with organized religion. You have GOD, you have RELIGION and you have CHURCH. The church is a bureaucratic structure. When people in power and authority start to worry more about protecting the bureaucratic structure than they worry about spreading the word, all sorts of disgusting shit can result.
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