NEW YORK (NY)
CNN
August 14, 2019
By Eric Levenson
The New York State Court system is expecting so many lawsuits as part of a new child sex abuse law that 45 judges have been set aside to deal exclusively with them, spokesman Lucian Chalfen said.
The New York Child Victims Act, signed into law on February 14, expands the ways that those who suffered sexual abuse as children can use the legal system to address the damage.
In particular, the law created a one-year period, starting Wednesday, when any adult survivors of child sexual abuse can sue an abuser or a negligent institution, no matter how long ago the abuse took place.
The designated 45 judges, including 12 in New York City, make up just a fraction of the state’s 1,350 paid judges, but they are preparing for an “influx” of lawsuits, Chalfen said. Lawsuits are expected to be filed against the Archdiocese of New York, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Rockefeller University, the Boy Scouts, Jeffrey Epstein and others on Wednesday.
“The revived Child Victims Act cases are critically important cases, raising numerous challenging legal issues, that must be adjudicated as consistently and expeditiously as possible across the state,” Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks said. “We are fully committed to providing appropriate and sufficient resources to achieve that goal.”
The idea behind the law is that many victims of child sexual abuse keep it a secret for years, well beyond the previous statute of limitations, out of shame and fear.
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