NEWARK (NJ)
Star Ledger
February 14, 2019
By Susan K. Livio
State lawmakers will announce on Thursday they have reached an agreement that will repeal New Jersey’s narrow two-year statute of limitations that childhood victims of sexual assault say have prevented them from suing churches and other nonprofits, NJ Advance Media has learned.
The new legislation, which has not yet been made public, will allow a victim of childhood sexual abuse to bring a civil suit up until the age of 55 or seven years after they make “the discovery that they connect the injury to the abuse,” said Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, the bill’s prime sponsor.
“They may have known they were abused but don’t connect the psychological damage to it,” Vitale said. “Two years is a ridiculously short time” to have to come to grips with what happened, and tell their families, he said.
The legislation also allows adult victims of sexual assault seven years to file a civil lawsuit, instead of the current two-year time limit, Vitale said.
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