NY State Extends Statute of Limitations for Victims of Child Abuse
Spreading legal innovations to protect children is part of NCCASP's core mission. NCCASP supports the work of individuals passionate to create change and justice for victims of child sexual abuse, and is incredibly proud of the work that the coalition seeking justice for child victims has accomplished in New York State. The bill passed the assembly 130-3, after thirteen years of languishing in the legislature.
“It gives meaning and purpose to everything I and my fellow survivors have gone through,”
said Brian R. Toale, who has traveled to Albany for years to press legislators on the Child Victims Act.
"The Child Victim's Act greatly extends New York’s statutes of limitations for childhood sex abuse, which had required that criminal or civil charges be brought before the survivor’s 23rd birthday. That put put New York’s laws among the most restrictive in the nation. Many other states allow child sexual abuse claims to be brought decades after the assault. Nine have no statutes of limitations at all.
Under the new law, prosecutors could bring criminal charges until a victim turned 28, and victims could sue until age 55. The bill would also create a one-year 'look-back window,' during which old claims that had already passed the statute of limitations
could be revived."