NEWARK (NJ)
Star-Ledger
Match 28, 2019
Contrary to legal doctrine, justice delayed is not justice denied – at least not in perpetuity – as long as you have a righteous cause and one indomitable lawmaker.
This instructive lesson in governance comes from a bill that extends the statute of limitations in civil actions for children who were victims of sexual abuse, which is now headed for the governor’s desk after passing the Assembly by a unanimous vote Monday.
The bill affirms that access to justice is a civil right, and that an arbitrary statute of limitations prevents it. It took 17 years for Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, to convince his colleagues that this was the moral calling of our age, and that it was inexcusable to look the other way while the Catholic Church shielded clergy who raped children.
Changing the statute was crucial. The existing window for civil action in New Jersey was ludicrously short, as victims had to bring a civil case before they turned 20, or within two years from the time they connected their trauma to the abuse.
The reality is that the vast majority of victims, if they disclose anything at all, do it during adulthood. The average age of such disclosure is 52. Roughly one-third of child sexual abuse cases are never reported at all.
Vitale’s bill, which Gov. Murphy endorses, allows child victims to sue until age 55, or from 7 years of the discovery of their abuse. It also gives those who have been time-barred another two-year window to pursue their civil case. And critically, it allows victims to hold both the abusers and the institutions who protected them accountable.
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