ALBANY (NY)
WTEN - ABC 10 [Albany NY]
December 20, 2023
By Jamie DeLine
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal is the sponsor of the Child Victims Act, which passed in 2019. The law provided a two-year lookback window for those sexually abused as a child to sue their abuser
“We arbitrarily set the age at which you have to go to court to age 55 in a civil trial and 28 in a criminal,” explained Rosenthal.
She has authored a bill to make the legislation permanent by getting rid of the statute of limitations in New York.
“The fact is, you might not be ready to come forward, so why should reaching the age 55 dictate that your chance of justice in the court is eliminated?”
Roughly 11,000 lawsuits were filed under the Child Victims Act.
Michael Polenberg, Safe Horizon Vice President of Government Affairs, supports this legislation saying it can take decades for some victims to process the trauma.
“Survivors need time to be able to understand what happened,” said Polenberg. “Sexual abuse, I think, is quite unlike other kinds of crimes in that sense. There is pressure, there is shame, there’s a lack of understanding about what the law is, and to be able to have the time they need to come forward and get the help they need, especially to seek justice in a court.”
Rosenthal will be trying to get the bill passed in the new legislative session, which begins in January.