CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register
By FRANCISCO F. FIRMAT / For the Register
As early as this week the California State Assembly will vote on Senate Bill 131, proposed legislation authored by state Sen. Jim Beall, D-Campbell, that seeks to amend the current California Statute of Limitations (Code of Civil Procedure Section 340.1). It relates to the filing of civil lawsuits concerning the abuse of minors. Senate Bill 131 offers no additional protections to children nor does it increase criminal penalties for abusers. This is bad legislation that should not be enacted.
Childhood sexual abuse is wrong, evil and an affront to all our concepts of decency. It is a crime against the innocent and the defenseless that causes lifetime harm. It is a betrayal of trust, a violation of the child’s dignity and a scandal that it occurs in America within our public and private institutions. It deserves to be extinguished and its perpetrators severely punished. The victims deserve monetary compensation. However, allowing a lawsuit to be brought 20 or more years after the abuse is a wrong solution and very bad public policy.
Article Tab: Victoria Martin, a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, holds a quilt with faces of other victims at the Los Angeles County Courthouse where a record $660 million settlement between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and plaintiffs who alleged they were sexually abused by clergy members was presented for approval by a judge on July 16, 2007 in Los Angeles.
Statutes of limitations have existed in this country since our nation was founded and serve the important purpose of assuring that evidence be fresh and thus trustworthy and that the plaintiff be diligent; it is deemed unfair that a defendant have to defend a stale lawsuit where evidence has not been preserved. Some of the best-known California Statutes of Limitations have the following filing limitations:
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.