CALIFORNIA
Fort Mill Times
LOS ANGELES —
LibertyBell Law Group’s civil lawyers applaud the new California bill, SB-131, allowing childhood sexual abuse victims to seek damages by axing the statute of limitations for one year effective January 1, 2014. The sexual abuse law does have some requirements. The bill, dubbed the Child Victims’ Act, passed in the Senate and Assembly. The bill sits on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown, who has until October 13th to sign or veto the bill. If the governor does nothing, SB-131 becomes law without his expression of approval or dissent.
Opponents of the Child Victims’ Act argue the bill unfairly targets private schools and non-profit institutions; some of which have a publicized history of child sexual abuse. Recently, Reuters reported on a sex abuse scandal spanning many years of shielded sexual abuse by priests, evidenced by 6,000 pages of released documents ordered by a Wisconsin judge. On September 3, 2013, the New York Post reported sexually abused victims’ pleas for help were ignored by an elite private school, which is confirmed by government investigations of the Horace Man sexual abuse.
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the largest public school system in California and second in the country, now has a zero-tolerance policy towards sex abuse after the Miramonte sex abuse scandal. Governor Brown recently also signed AB-449, Teacher Misconduct Bill, which criminalizes superintendents for failing to report teachers when they are disciplined or fired for misconduct. One of the LAUSD board members, Tamar Galatzan, is also a criminal prosecutor since 2002.
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