Child Victims Act Passes Through Judiciary Committee, Awaiting Final Vote

ALBANY, NY- Senator Brad Hoylman (D/WF- Manhattan) released the following statement in response to the passage of the Child Victims Act (S.2440/A.2683) through the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Senator Hoylman said: “For decades, New York’s broken statute of limitations has denied survivors of child sexual abuse their opportunity to seek justice. Today, this era of inaction comes to an end. After a long fight, we are one step closer to giving survivors their rightful path to justice. I look forward to the results of this afternoon’s floor vote and thank my fellow members of the Democratic Conference for their swift passage of the Child Victims Act through committee this morning.”

The Child Victims Act would extend New York’s statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse and create a one-year lookback window within which survivors would be able to initiate claims against their abusers in cases where the statute of limitations has expired. Under the new legislation, survivors of child sexual abuse will be permitted to bring a civil lawsuit against their abuser or institutions that enabled or protected their abuser by the age of 55, up from the current age of 23. Additionally, those abused at a public institution will no longer be required to file a notice of claim as a condition to filing a lawsuit.

The legislation previously passed the Assembly by wide margins in 2017 and 2018, but stalled in the State Senate under Republican leadership.

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