New York Courts Will Allow Child Victims Act Filings "in the Next Few Weeks"
By Cayla Harris
ALBANY – The state court system will make an exception to allow new filings under the Child Victims Act "in the next few weeks," even as other non-essential filings remain frozen during the pandemic, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration said Thursday. "We will not deny those litigants the ability to file," the spokesman, Lucian Chalfen, said in an email. The exception, first reported by the New York Law Journal, comes amid growing calls from survivors and advocates to extend the act's one-year "look-back" period that is set to expire in August. The window has resulted in more than 1,700 lawsuits filed by individuals who had previously been time-barred from lodging claims against their alleged sexual abusers. But court filings were paused in March as the coronavirus pandemic effectively shut down the state court system. It is unclear whether alleged survivors will be able to make up for lost filing time during the pandemic; Chalfen said any extension of the window would require executive or legislative action. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order in March suspending statutes of limitations during the state of emergency, but there is uncertainty among lawyers and legal experts as to whether that moratorium also applies to the Child Victims Act's one-year window. Jeff Herman, an attorney with a Manhattan-based firm who has handled several Child Victims Act cases, said he has "dozens and dozens" of complaints ready to go once the courts allow filings again. While he believes the governor's tolling order applies to the act, "unless there's crystal clear, documented evidence of that, via another order, I wouldn't wait to file. I would file before the deadline – I wouldn't take that risk." He added that the current public health crisis has exacerbated many personal challenges and stresses that survivors already deal with on a regular basis, making it "imperative" that officials extend the look-back period. "They don't have the luxury of dealing with these issues that have been haunting them their whole lives because they're dealing with this current stuff," Herman said. State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, who sponsored the bill creating the act, said it is "absurd" to believe that survivors will be able to move forward with cases while they are also worried about health, finances and housing. He said the promised window has been effectively "cut in half" and has urged the governor's office to issue an order explicitly extending the window at least for the time lost during the public health emergency. Hoylman and Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, are sponsoring a bill that would extend the period for another year. "It's not just like you can snap your fingers and think that survivors are going to be able to file claims in the middle of a pandemic," Hoylman said. "This is a difficult process to file a claim under the Child Victims Act in the best of circumstances." The confusion surrounding the statute of limitations, Rosenthal added, will create "more needless litigation to clog the courts" as lawyers on both sides of the issue debate whether Cuomo's order applies to the Child Victims Act. "This whole issue is mired in uncertainty, and the only way that I will feel peaceful about what the survivors can anticipate going forward is if we extend the window by another year," she said. Cuomo spokesman Jason Conwall said "we're reviewing the best course of action." Bridie Farrell, the founder of the nonprofit America Loves Kids, said the decision indicates that the courts "recognize that the time is slipping through the hourglass for survivors of child sexual abuse." She had held an online forum on Wednesday discussing the impact of the public health emergency on abuse cases. "To be honest, it gives me goosebumps, because people realize that it is a big deal," she said.
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