NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9036
SPONSOR: Rosenthal L TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to extend-
ing the statute of limitations for certain child sexual abuse cases
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill amends section 214-g of the civil practice law and
rules, as added by chapter 11 of the laws of 2019, to extend by one year
the period o f time during which otherwise time-barred civil claims
revived by the Child Victims Act may be initiated.
Section 2 of the bill is the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2019, the New York State Legislature enacted the Child Victims Act,
which, among other provisions, created a one-year window during which
adult survivors of child sexual abuse would be permitted to file civil
actions, even if the statute of limitations had already expired or, in
the case of civil actions against public institutions, a notice of claim
requirement had gone unmet.
The revival window created by the Child Victims Act opened on August 14,
2019. As of December 2019, four months into the revival window, over
1,300 civil suits have been filed against alleged abusers, on behalf of
at least 1,700 survivors.
Extending the length of the revival window would provide more time to
notify New Yorkers about the new law and allow more survivors to seek
the justice that was denied them by New York's formerly prohibitive
civil statute of limitations. Several states that have enacted legis-
lation similar to the Child Victims Act have opted to provide a revival
window of longer than one year - most recently New Jersey, which
provided a two-year window that opened in December 2019.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
