BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Stephanie Ebbert
| Globe Staff
July 26, 2012
The House passed a bill Wednesday to extend the statute of limitations for child victims of sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits, angering advocates who had hoped that such time limits would be eliminated.
The measure would limit to 27 years the deadline to claim to have been sexually abused as a child, effectively, expanding a victim’s potential to file claims until he or she is 43 years old.
That is a scaled-back version of the original bill, which would have eliminated the time limit on civil claims of childhood sexual abuse.
Though the measure would only affect future abuse cases, it would also offer victims who have been previously shut out by statutes of limitations one year in which to file retroactive claims. However, the bill would prevent a business or entity from being blamed for such abuse, unless gross negligence can be proven.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.